Paris from Reflections
Richard Schuurman reports from the 2025 Paris Air Show – an event like no other, but possibly not for the reasons one might expect
Qatar Airways brought Boeing 777-3DZER, A7-BED (c/n 60330), to Paris, recently bedecked in a special Champions League livery
ALL IMAGES VINCENZO PACE UNLESS STATED
The usual competition with Airbus was ‘a no-no’ at the 55th Paris Air Show after Boeing announced two days before the start that it would not make any announcements out of respect for the victims of the Ahmedabad Air India crash on June 12. Except for a couple of briefings, the US airframer cancelled all commercial announcements. Kelly Ortberg, Group CEO, and Stephanie Pope, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO, decided not to attend, but instead concentrated on supporting Air India in the aftermath of the accident. Brad McMullen, senior vice president of commercial sales and marketing, was in Paris to engage with customers. It’s not that Boeing didn’t sign any deals, but those deals would not be announced until early July as part of the monthly orders and deliveries update, to count as airshow orders later on. It’s likely the same for GE Aerospace and CFM, which also opted to keep a low profile and cancelled all media events in Paris, given that the Air India aircraft operated GE engines. Airbus, Embraer and ATR orders totalled 561 commercial aircraft, including firm orders, options, purchase rights, memorandums of understanding (MoU) and letters of intent (LOI). There were 217 new orders, 111 options and 177 MoUs/LOIs for orders and options, plus 50 purchase rights and a previously announced order for six aircraft. Of these, Airbus won 142 new orders, 106 options, 152 MoUs and the six previously announced orders, while Embraer went home with 75 new orders, five options and 50 purchase rights. Without Boeing, Airbus dominated the three trade days from June 16-19.