| The Paris Air Show started Monday, but the typically festive event has been overshadowed by last week’s Air India crash. Benedikt Kammel, Bloomberg’s managing editor for space and aviation, reports on the unusually somber atmosphere. Plus: A Q&A with Citadel Securities’ Ken Griffin and a climate change denial glossary. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. Every two years, the world of aviation descends on Paris for a week of dealmaking, parties and aerial acrobatics by fighter jets, military transporters and civilian aircraft. The Champagne flows freely, top executives chat up customers over sumptuous dinners in five-star hotels or even atop the Eiffel Tower, and billion-dollar deals for aircraft and parts are announced like clockwork. This year, the mood has been darkened by an airplane crash that left more than 250 people dead less than a week before the show’s start. On June 12, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India struggled to gain altitude after takeoff from Ahmedabad, then plunged into a densely populated neighborhood seconds later, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew, as well as dozens more on the ground. Although the cause of the crash remains unknown, the incident has dampened the celebrations at Le Bourget airport, north of the French capital. The crash has thrust Boeing Co. back into crisis mode just as its reputation was recovering from a pair of 737s lost in rapid succession in 2018 and 2019 and an incident in which a door panel blew out of the side of a plane last year. The American company has drastically scaled back its presence in Paris, and senior executives including Kelly Ortberg, the chief executive officer, have canceled their appearances. As authorities seek clues about what led to the crash, Ortberg now has to deal with investigators, customers and a once-again jittery public that’s concerned about the safety of Boeing’s jetliners. Whatever deals Boeing had planned to announce—purchases by Royal Air Maroc and various leasing companies had been rumored—will likely be postponed or quietly concluded without much fanfare. Boeing called off its usual reception on the second night of the event, though its exhibition space and meeting facilities, where it hosts executives and the press, will remain open.  The engine of a Boeing Dreamliner 787-9, operated by Riyadh Air, at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg Airbus SE insists that it has no intention to seek an edge over its rival because of the crash, which serves as a reminder of the paramount importance of the industry’s continued push for safety. Even as the company announced a smattering of orders on the first day of the show, it prefaced each with a short tribute to those affected by the Air India tragedy. “Safety is in everything that we do,” Christian Scherer, the head of Airbus’ commercial aircraft business, said at a media gathering on Friday. Airbus, though, is proceeding with its planned schedule for the event on its French home turf. CEO Guillaume Faury is in attendance, and the company on Monday revealed a pair of deals with Saudi companies valued at as much as $17 billion and one with Poland’s LOT for 40 single-aisle planes, which could be worth about $2.7 billion over the next five or so years. Thanks to the advancements in air safety over the decades, crashes on the scale of last week’s have become increasingly rare. In 2023, for instance, there wasn’t a single fatal accident involving a large jetliner. And it’s highly unusual for a crash to overshadow a big international air industry gathering. The last time was in 2014, when Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine by a Russian missile, killing everyone on board, which happened while a similar event was taking place at Farnborough, just outside London (the annual European show alternates between the two venues). The somber atmosphere in Paris stands in stark contrast to the jubilant vibes two weeks ago, when the industry gathered in New Delhi for the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association. There, hundreds of executives, flight attendants and local dignitaries partied at receptions and dinners, basking in optimism about the future of travel—particularly on the Indian subcontinent. Given last week’s disaster, it will take some time to recover that enthusiasm. |
