The first day of the Singapore Airshow usually features teeming crowds, flashy presentations and big orders for aircraft makers. The coronavirus outbreak has shot that to pieces this year as scores of companies steer clear of Asia’s biggest aerospace and defense gathering. People who did attend limited their interaction to bows or uneasy elbow bumps. Changi Exhibition Centre near the city-state’s airport is dotted with vacant booths displaying signs from companies apologizing for their absence, while the static display area for aircraft is virtually empty. Beyond a smattering of deals -- Korean Air buying engines from Pratt & Whitney, PNG Air ordering three ATR turboprops and Japan Airlines signing a service agreement with General Electric -- there was little action, with rainy weather adding to the gloom.<br/>
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China’s aviation regulator said Wednesday that it hopes countries will lift virus-related travel restrictions as soon as possible, in line with guidance from the WHO and ICAO. The Civil Aviation Administration of China will continue to lobby authorities to subsidize airlines hurt by travel curbs due to the coronavirus, said Xiong Jie, a CAAC official. The regulator will also support mergers among airlines and help them optimize capacity arrangements so they can weather a difficult time, Xiong said. “The coronaviurs has had a huge impact on the civil aviation industry, which resulted in significant reductions in flight volume and could create new or spill-over safety risks,” Xiong said. Passenger traffic declined 5.3% in January from a year earlier, compared with a growth rate of 7.9% for 2019.<br/>
Boeing said airlines in Southeast Asia will need 4,500 new aircraft over the next two decades to meet demand from the region’s growing middle class. The expected new orders in the region are worth $710b at list prices, the company said Wednesday in its market outlook briefing at the Singapore Airshow. Regional growth will be driven by carriers from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, which have made the top 10 list of countries that added the most airline seat capacity since 2010, according to Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s VP of commercial marketing. “With an expanding middle class, in a market that continues to liberalize, coupled with a strong domestic, regional and international tourism sector, Southeast Asia has become one of the world’s largest aviation markets,” Tinseth said. The planemaker maintained a bullish outlook amid a decade of supercharged aerospace growth, even after failing to sell any commercial planes in January, extending a slump that has strained the company’s finances since two deadly crashes grounded the best-selling 737 Max.<br/>
Malaysian airlines could be barred from introducing new routes in China, South Korea and Japan after the US FAA downgraded the country’s air safety rating late last year, Malaysia’s aviation regulator said Tuesday. In its first comments since the FAA downgrade, the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) said it was concerned its carriers would suffer the same fate as Thailand when it was downgraded by the FAA in 2015. China, South Korea and Japan all stopped Thailand-based airlines from flying charters and new routes because of safety concerns raised by the ICAO, which was followed by the FAA downgrade. MAVCOM Chief Operating Officer Azmir Zain said Malaysian carriers could lose as much as 4b ringgit ($966m), or 24% of their revenue a year, if China, Japan and South Korea took the same restrictive steps against them.<br/>
Fixing the 737 Max and getting it back in the air is crucial for Boeing. But it's not the only major challenge facing the embattled aircraft maker. Boeing also needs to focus on its next generation of passenger planes. The aircraft maker has made its focus clear as it works on getting the 737 Max approved to fly again, which is expected to happen by the middle of this year. The nearly year-long crisis has put orders and deliveries of many of the company's jets on hold. Tuesday, Boeing reported that it didn't receive any new orders for commercial jets in January, compared to 45 orders a year ago. And it only delivered 13 commercial planes in the month, down from 46 a year earlier. The 737 Max crisis has stymied Boeing's growth. But Boeing faces a longer-term threat that is even more important to overcome: Boeing is falling behind rival Airbus and needs to build the next generation of planes to remain competitive in the future. The 777X widebody plane has already been developed and is going through its first round of test flights. But its official debut has been pushed back because of problems with its engine from General Electric. Story has more details.<br/>
The air cargo market is unlikely to grow this year because of the challenges posed in the China market due to the coronavirus, a senior executive at Boeing said Wednesday. The world’s biggest manufacturer of freighter aircraft had previously forecast air freight would grow by 1% to 2% this year due in part to the United States and China reaching a phase 1 trade deal, said Randy Tinseth, VP of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the commercial division of Boeing. “That is going to see pressure as well,” he said of the U.S.-China deal at the Singapore Airshow. “If we are not seeing goods travel and airplanes fly that is under pressure. I think it is going to be really tough to see the cargo market grow this year.”<br/>
Rolls-Royce is “open-minded” on whether it will join Boeing in a fresh attempt at addressing the midsize jet market after pulling out of an earlier effort over timing, a top company official said Wednesday. Boeing is re-examining plans for a mid-market jet designed to carry 220-270 passengers after a crisis over the grounding of its smaller 737 MAX absorbed its attention in the past year, leaving the door open to rival Airbus to sell its A321XLR. The delay gives Rolls-Royce more time to develop its efficient new Ultrafan engine technology, for which it has started building parts for a demonstrator. “We are open-minded ... and will stay open-minded when we know what Boeing plans to do,” Chris Cholerton, president of civil aerospace at the British engineering company, said at the Singapore Airshow. The comments came a year after Rolls-Royce dropped out of the race to power Boeing’s planned mid-market aircraft, saying it did not want to risk more disruption for airline customers by rushing out a product without extensive testing.<br/>
Paris Charles de Gaulle is set to eclipse Heathrow airport as Europe’s leading aviation hub within 18 months, The Independent has calculated. The airport in the French capital has four runways, compared with two at Heathrow. In 2019, Paris CDG grew by around 5% to 76.15m passengers. Heathrow’s growth was 1%, to 80.9m. The Independent calculates that, if those rates of growth are sustained, Paris CDG will handle 80m passengers this year, compared with 81.7m for Heathrow. The rolling annual totals for both airports, assuming constant growth, would be equal at 82.3m at the end of July 2021. After that, Charles de Gaulle airport would move ahead. Predictions may well be confounded by the sharp decline in traffic between Europe and China because of the coronavirus outbreak. <br/>