By now it is clear that new orders for large commercial aircraft (LCA) are at least dipping (see page 54). The combined book-to-bill rates for Airbus and Boeing, the leading original equipment manufacturers (OEM), fell below the psychologically important 1.0x mark in 2016 for the first time since 2009. Cutbacks in higher-margin widebodies were especially alarming. Worse yet, with Canadian, Chinese and Russian "upstarts" continuing to press into their base marketplace, the Airbus-Boeing LCA duopoly looks increasingly challenged (see p. 20). Season all of that with political volatility across the West and a slew of aerospace-sensitive issues heating up, like trade protectionism and state sponsorship, and the future is looking bleaker for a number of reasons.
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