The order, which includes 500 aircraft, for the Indian low-cost airline “IndiGo”, kicked off the “air recovery exhibition” as the organizers liked to name it, after the Corona virus paralyzed the sector in 2021, and caused the cancellation of the Le Bourget trade fair, which is held every two years. Copy of it in 2019.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, arrived on board the H160 helicopter, which is the latest addition to the Airbus helicopter group, in what the Elysee Palace wanted to stress the need to decarbonize the aviation sector in the face of climate change, as the helicopter is supplied with sustainable aviation fuel by 30 percent of non-fossil origin.
Macron watched the first air shows, when Rafale combat helicopters and planes, and even the Airbus A321XLR, the long-range version of the best-selling model, paraded through cloudy skies.
On the ground, foreign delegations went to the company’s presentation sites to complete deals in complete secrecy.
This exhibition, the largest in the world in terms of the number of visitors, which is expected to receive 320,000 people, is characterized by huge orders of aircraft, aviation shows and technology shows.
The fifty-fourth edition is organized in light of the climate crisis and societal pressures exerted on a sector that contributes to about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Macron benefited from his visit to defend an economic and social model based on “innovation” and “industrial strategy”, to achieve “reasonable”, “transparent” and “non-punitive” environmental sobriety, in the face of a model that forces “abandonment of growth”.
recovery gallery
2,500 exhibitors will participate in this forum, and Macron will meet some of the 1,130 participating French companies, which make the aviation and space industries sector the first contributor to the French trade balance (22.7 billion euros in 2022).
On Friday, the French President announced a plan worth 2.2 billion euros to keep pace with technology that allows to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation. This passes, in particular, through the development of sustainable fuel for aviation.
Macron reviewed, at the Airbus pavilion, the group’s technological roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a goal aspired by the global aviation sector.
And Le Bourget, which is held every two years, is presented as the “exhibition of recovery” after the pandemic, which depleted the coffers of airlines and caused prolonged disruptions to manufacturers’ supply chains.
“It’s a return to the enthusiasm generated by the exhibition,” said Guillaume Faury, president of the Airbus group and the French Aerospace Industries Association, which is organizing the exhibition.
The huge interest in the exhibition shows that “the passion for air travel is still there and that’s good news,” said Bertrand Godino, Managing Director of easyJet.
But from the perspective of 14 environmental NGOs, the Paris Air Show, on the contrary, embodies “climate denial”. The organizations added, “Without limiting air traffic, we will not be able to reduce emissions, noise or pollution resulting from this sector in the time available.”
As global air traffic is about to return to its pre-Covid level, companies are seeking to renew their fleet through more economical aircraft that consume less fuel and emit fewer carbon dioxide emissions to meet the condition of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The question remains as to how many orders Airbus and Boeing will receive.
“Everyone will be watching for large orders,” says Guillaume Faurie, but with the absence of major events during the pandemic, “the habit of focusing everything during exhibitions has been relatively lost, so I am not sure that we will be facing the same dynamism that we had before Covid.”
The exhibition will certainly witness orders, according to Stan Dale, director of the commercial aircraft division at Boeing, who told reporters Sunday that “our main goal remains to continue working with the sector to recover from Covid.”
In connection with the order of the Indian company IndiGo to purchase 500 Airbus A-320 aircraft. The CEO of the company, Peter Elbers, said that this order, valued at $ 55 billion, according to the official price list, is the largest of its kind in the history of civil aviation and a “historic” step for the two companies.
The aircraft are expected to be delivered between 2030 and 2035.
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