Boeing unveiled orders for dozens of 737 MAX jets on Tuesday as Britain's Farnborough Airshow, back after a four-year pandemic-induced hiatus, braved the hottest day on UK record. While the second day of one of the industry's biggest events saw a relatively modest flow of orders, the minds of most aviation bosses were focused on fixing broken supply chains - and ducking from one air-conditioned chalet to another. Stabilising fractured supply chains rather than adding to bulging order books is the main focus of this year's event, though Boeing is keen to shore up its 737 MAX programme with deals following a safety crisis and regulatory issues. Miami-based airline investor 777 Partners ordered 30 MAX in a deal that could rise to 66 planes if options are exercised. That comes after a deal for 100 MAX 10 airliners from Delta on Monday - a boost for a model whose future has been clouded by an elusive year-end deadline for certification in time to avoid costly rule changes. "I think you can check the reboot box and now we're just into the normal Boeing versus Airbus continuing to compete hard for each customer," Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal told reporters. Lessor ACG ordered 12 737 MAX while Delta Air Lines placed an order for 12 A220 jets from Airbus. Regional planemakers Embraer and ATR also announced deals. Still, the volumes seen so far pale in comparison with former events. Cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the biennial event saw headline deals worth more than $190b when last held in 2018.<br/>
general
Production bottlenecks were the key talking point at the aviation industry’s equivalent to speed dating -- flurries of meetings held at elaborate temporary chalets erected at Farnborough International Airshow, where executives took the opportunity to connect face-to-face once again. “It’s topic number one in every meeting in every chalet I’ve been,” said Chris Calio, chief operating officer for Raytheon Technologies Corp., having huddled with some of his company’s biggest customers, including Boeing Co. Boeing’s commercial chief Stan Deal described the contrast between the US planemaker’s sales bonanza and its struggles to get thousands of companies to deliver parts on time as a “tale of two worlds.” The pain is being felt industrywide as companies grapple with labor shortages, high inflation and disruptions in parts shipments worsened by China’s Covid lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Calio said in an interview in Raytheon’s chalet at the top of a hill overlooking the show. “We’re seeing and feeling it acutely,” he said.<br/>
Airplanes are a minor contributor to global greenhouse-gas emissions, but their share is sure to grow as more people travel in coming years — and that has the aviation industry facing the prospect of tighter environmental regulations and higher costs. The industry has embraced a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Experts who track the issue are skeptical. Until the COVID-19 pandemic caused travel to slump, airlines were on a steady course of burning more fuel, year after year. Today’s aircraft engines are the most efficient ever, but improvements in reducing fuel burn are agonizingly slow — about 1% a year on average. At Monday’s opening of a huge aviation industry show near London, discussion about climate change replaced much of the usual buzz over big airplane orders. The weather was fitting. The Farnborough International Airshow opened as UK authorities issued the first extreme heat warning in England’s history. Two nearby airports closed their runways, one reporting that heat caused the surface to buckle.As airlines confront climate change, the stakes could hardly be higher. Jim Harris, who leads the aerospace practice at consultant Bain & Co., says that with airlines recovering from the jolt of the pandemic, hitting net-zero by 2050 is now the industry’s biggest challenge. “There is no obvious solution, there is no one technology, there is no one set of actions that are going to get the industry there,” Harris says. “The amount of change required, and the timeline, are big issues.” Aviation releases only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. However, aviation is used by far fewer people per day. Jet fuel use by the four biggest US airlines – American, United, Delta and Southwest — rose 15% in the five years leading up to 2019, the last year before air travel dropped, even as they updated their fleets with more efficient planes.<br/>
The U.N.'s aviation agency on Tuesday for the first time blamed senior Belarus officials for a hoax last year that grounded a Ryanair Holdings flight and led to the arrest of a dissident reporter. The plane was on its way from Athens to Vilnius in May 2021 when Belarus controllers ordered it to land in Minsk, citing a bomb threat. Once it was on the ground, Belarus journalist Roman Protasevich was detained along with his then-girlfriend.The International Civil Aviation Organization, which had previously said it did not know who was behind the hoax, condemned Minsk for "committing an act of unlawful interference" which contravened aviation rules."The ICAO Council acknowledged that the bomb threat against (the flight) ... was deliberately false and endangered its safety, and furthermore that the threat was communicated to the flight crew upon the instructions of senior government officials of Belarus," it said in a statement, citing new information. Russia's representative, it added, strongly objected to the conclusion. Western nations have imposed sanctions against Minsk for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<br/>
Several airlines at Heathrow Airport could face disruption due to refuelling staff striking later this week. A total of 50 workers from Aviation Fuel Services (AFS) will stage a three-day walkout from 05:00 BST on Thursday to 04:59 on Sunday in a row over pay. Airlines affected include Virgin, United, KLM, Emirates, and Air France. The strikes come as passengers have faced delays and cancellations in recent months, largely due to staff shortages in the aviation industry. The UK is about to enter the key summer holiday season as schools begin to break up and there are concerns travellers will be hit by further disruption and delays to journeys. Airports and airlines, which cut jobs during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, have struggled to recruit staff as demand for international travel has returned. It has led to Heathrow Airport demanding airlines stop selling summer tickets and placing a cap on passenger numbers per day.<br/>
Private equity firm 777 Partners on Tuesday agreed to buy 30 more Boeing 737 MAX jets as it expands its low-cost airline plans. The Miami-based investment firm said it plans to buy both the main 737 MAX 8 model and the higher-density 737 MAX 8200 version. It said it plans to buy up to 66 MAX jets in part for a new planned low-cost airline. The deal, announced at the Farnborough Airshow, takes 777 Partners' purchase plans up to 134 MAX planes having announced an agreement for 30 in December. The firm has used its 737 MAX purchases to launch two budget carriers - Canadian ultra low-cost carrier Flair Airlines and Bonza Airline, an Australian start-up set to begin operations this year. "This new order marks another milestone in the robust growth of our aviation businesses and concurrently, our partnership with Boeing," said Josh Wander, managing partner of 777 Partners. Wander told reporters the order would help it launch another low-cost air carrier that he plans to announce "in the near term."<br/>
Aircraft lessor AerCap Holdings (AER.N) on Tuesday agreed to buy five additional Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner jets as the U.S. planemaker nears a resumption of deliveries. "We believe in this aircraft," said AerCap Chief Commercial Officer Peter Anderson at a press event at the Farnborough Airshow. "We see an opportunity to build on a bet that we placed on the 787 a while ago... We think the 787 is an aircraft of the future." Separately, aircraft lessor Aviation Capital Group LLC said on Tuesday it had ordered 12 additional 737 MAX 8 jets. ACG Executive Chair Mahoko Hara said the move "will help position ACG's order book for a recovery in air traffic coming out of the pandemic." Boeing Commercial Airplanes CE Stan Deal said on Sunday the US planemaker was "very close" to restarting 787 deliveries, which have been halted since May 2021 as Boeing works through inspections and production issues.<br/>