An Airbus A321 flies at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, Britain, July 22, 2024. Toby Melville | Reuters

FARNBOROUGH, England — Massive airplane orders, hundreds deep in recent years, were absent from this year's biggest air show. The focus instead was on struggles at Boeing and Airbus to ramp up airplane production while battling a hangover from the pandemic that was marked by seesawing output. Many of the issues, particularly training new workers, will take years to fix, analysts say, meaning lingering headaches for airlines, suppliers and the manufacturers themselves — and a shortage of new, more fuel-efficient planes. "It's a fair sentiment on the part of the supply base and the airlines to say that we failed our commitments to them in terms of being timely, in terms of predictability," said Ihssane Mounir, Boeing's senior vice president of global supply chain and fabrication, during a panel at the Farnborough Airshow outside of London last week. "So obviously, people start doing their own planning and their own second-guessing." A roadmap of the next few months of production will come this week, when Airbus reports quarterly results on Tuesday, followed by Boeing on Wednesday. Wall Street analysts expect Boeing will post another loss for the second quarter and possibly the next. Airbus has cut its delivery targets for the year.

Modest orders

At the show, which concluded Friday, Boeing racked up 96 orders and commitments, including previously made sales that were firmed up, while Airbus had 266, far shy of the 826 orders during the Paris Air Show a year ago, according to a tally from consulting firm Ishka. Paris and Farnborough alternate hosting the expo each year. One standout was Air Korea's order for up to 50 Boeing wide-body planes, including the 777X, which Boeing is working toward getting certified by regulators. The carrier also has Airbus A350-1000 jets on order. As both manufacturers grapple with production strains, Air Korea CEO Walter Cho quipped during the Boeing order signing: "Whichever comes first will become our flagship, whoever's on time."

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