Farnborough Air Show Sees Major Freight Orders for Boeing

UK – As usual the Farnborough International Airshow has this week drawn the big hitters of the aerospace and aviation sectors and Brexit was of course on everyone's lips as the government squeezed its latest proposals through parliament. Amongst the deals done Boeing certainly appeared to be the happiest of the major manufacturers with some sizeable freight carrying aircraft amongst the several billion dollars in sales announced to date.

With a deal worth $2 billion over the next few years Russian cargo outfit Volga Dnepr signed confirmation of an order for five Boeing 747-8 Freighters, whilst UK based CargoLogicHolding signed a deal which included a letter of intent to acquire 29 Boeing 777 Freighters and an agreement to work together on future freighter projects. The aircraft cost of this contract equates to $9.8 billion at current market prices.

Also earlier in the week Boeing and Qatar Airways finalised an order for five 777 Freighters at a current value of $1.7 billion, an arrangement first set out in April. Now GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) announced today that they have reached an agreement to take delivery of 35 additional 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters in a deal, which includes 20 firm orders and an option for 15 more, and which means it takes GECAS' 737-800BCF order book from 15 to 50 if all options are taken up.

Earlier in the week logistics outfit DHL committed to 14 more Boeing 777 Freighters, and purchase rights for 7 additional similar aircraft in an agreement worth $4.7 billion. Global air freight demand grew by nearly 10% last year with demand growth outpacing capacity growth by a factor of three. Expanding cross-border e-commerce sales for instance will grow to $4.48 trillion by 2021, which means a growth of 19.2% per year.

Boeing this week issued its estimates of global aircraft sales for the next two decades which predict a huge rise in Chinese trade with the Asian country becoming the major force in air travel. The company believes that in that time span sales of aircraft of all types will equate to around an astonishing $6.3 trillion.