Two companies, Boeing and Airbus, have dominated the aviation industry for decades. But Boeing’s recent safety difficulties this year, along with production shortfalls at both planemakers, may prompt airlines to wonder whether it’s time to change the competitive landscape.
“We need more competition in the aerospace business,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said. airshow podcast, According to aviation network reports airflow. Kirby said his airline was not yet ready to make a big purchase of aircraft from non-Airbus, non-Boeing manufacturers, but it was “just starting to think about” cultivating new suppliers.
Boeing is still grappling with the fallout from early January, when a door jam exploded mid-flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines. That’s prompted greater scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing processes. The company has slowed production of the planes, irritating airlines that had expected to take delivery of Boeing planes this year.
Kirby has previously complained about Boeing’s woes, calling the temporary grounding of the 737 Max 9 ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration in January “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Boeing rival Airbus is also facing problems. Parts and labor shortages have reportedly forced the European planemaker to delay deliveries to operators. Hundreds of Airbus 320neo jets also need to be grounded to replace faulty parts in engines made by supplier Pratt & Whitney.
COMAC as a third supplier?
But who might that third supplier be?
One possibility is COMAC and its C919 narrow-body jet, similar to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Earlier this year, the Chinese state-owned manufacturer debuted the C919 aircraft at the Singapore Air Show, its first international display.
At the Fortune Innovation Forum earlier this year, Cathay Pacific CEO Lam Chung-kee said that the aviation industry may be moving towards the “ABC market”: Airbus, Boeing and COMAC. The head of Hong Kong’s flagship airline, which currently uses Boeing and Airbus, said this “triangular competition” would benefit the industry.
kirby in his Airshow Podcast, not sure. Responding to a question about whether the third supplier was China, he said: “It’s not inevitable, I don’t think it’s likely.”
So far, only Chinese airlines have committed to buying the C919, although Saudi Arabian Airlines has reportedly expressed some interest in COMAC’s work. The C919 still needs approval from European and U.S. regulators before it can operate commercially in those markets.
Even the COMAC regional jet ARJ21, which has been put into commercial use since 2016, has not yet received approval from U.S. regulatory agencies. (A small Indonesian airline is the only non-Chinese airline using ARJ21)
Instead, Kirby thinks a new challenger could be Brazil’s Embraer.
Embraer is the industry’s third-largest manufacturer after Boeing and Airbus. The Brazilian company currently produces small regional jets with a capacity of just under 100 aircraft. wall street journal Reported in May.
