PARIS — Competition to increase sales of wide-bodied jets is likely to dominate the Paris Air Show this week, aviation industry analysts say, following the maiden flight of the Airbus A350-XWB in Toulouse, France, last Friday.
Airbus has denied reports that it will bring the A350 to the show; but industry analysts say that it would be odd if the European plane maker failed to follow up last week’s flight with at least a brief appearance over Le Bourget field — perhaps this coming Friday, when French President François Hollande is due to visit the show.
Airbus expects to sign orders for “a few hundred” airliners at Le Bourget, Thomas Enders, chief executive of the plane maker’s parent company, EADS, said Thursday.
Boeing, meanwhile, will be trying to restore faith in its 787 Dreamliner. The 787 will be flying at Paris — with new lithium-ion batteries replacing the faulty ones that caused the fleet to be grounded early this year.
Boeing may also be poised to introduce a larger member of its 787 Dreamliner family to meet demand for long-haul travel within Asia and other long-haul routes, Reuters reported last week.
Long-discussed plans for a 323-seat version of the 787 may be formally announced at the Paris show, it said, in a report following up an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal. It said Boeing had declined to comment.
Yet, for all the pre-show buzz, neither Airbus nor Boeing will be presenting new models at the show this year.
A rung lower on the industry’s pecking order, Bombardier of Canada announced in March that it would not be flying its new C series midsized jet at the show, opting for further testing before a maiden flight planned for later in the month.
In the absence of novelties from the industry leaders, much of the focus at Le Bourget will shift to smaller players, according to Gilles Fournier, the show’s managing director.
With the big players reducing their budgets for the show, display space vacated by the large companies has been reallocated to small and medium-size businesses, Mr. Fournier said in April.
Patrick Guérin, communications director of Gifas, the French Aerospace Industries Association, said the number of small and mid-size businesses showcasing their products at Le Bourget this year would be 10 percent more than at the last show in 2011, with the number of French companies alone rising to a record 450, from 400.
Air show organizers said the total number of exhibitors would rise to 2,212, up more than 5 percent from 2011.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/business/global/le-bourget-turns-to-small-players.html?partner=rss&emc=rss