Boeing Executive Optimistic Amid Gloom at Paris Air Show
LE BOURGET, FRANCE — The head of Boeing’s commercial jet division sought Monday to dispel some of the palpable pessimism at this year’s Paris Air Show, arguing that the global economy was showing signs of a recovery and predicting a resumption of growth in airline traffic as early as 2010.
“At this point it appears to us that the economic conditions have bottomed,” said Scott Carson, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “If they have bottomed and a recovery comes next year, I think we have a shot at getting through.”
Boeing has eschewed any slowdown of its assembly lines this year, though it expects to cut production rates for its long-range, wide-body 777 jet by 28 percent in mid-2010. Planned ramp-ups of 767 and 747 production were shelved. Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, has reduced output of both its A320 single-aisle plane and its A380 “superjumbo” while abandoning earlier plans to increase production of its wide-body A330.
Mr. Carson said the company’s moves on wide-body production were a specific reaction to the decline in air freight traffic that began in the autumn of 2008. World air cargo traffic fell about 6 percent in 2008 and is expected to plunge by a further 17 percent in 2009.
“There remains some risk to the freight side but also an opportunity,” Mr. Carson said. “The next six months are going to be incredibly important to us as we watch to see if inventory rebuilding begins — which I believe it will.”
“It feels to me like we can manage our way to a recovery,” he said.
Mr. Carson’s optimism was not universally shared at the Paris Air Show, however, where a thick, grey mantel of clouds hung like an unwanted metaphor over the opening day’s proceedings.
“You’ve got to look at the post-recession environment,” said Sash Tusa, an independent aerospace industry consultant. “What will be the effect of a rising interest-rate environment?”
Referring to Mr. Carson, Mr. Tusa added, “Financing orders a year out from now is not going to be as rosy as he thinks.”
Boeing Executive Optimistic Amid Gloom at Paris Air Show
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