Supply-chain troubles no. 1 talking point at Farnborough Airshow

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/>