Boeing, Airbus Eye Ways to Enhance Travel

Two aerospace rivals are both eyeing the lucrative maintenance and service market as they look to boost growth. Airbus and Boeing announced several items at the Paris Air Show this week, including some big-ticket purchases.

Boeing finalized orders for three 787 Dreamliners for Israeli carrier El Al and penned a memorandum of understanding with leasing company Air Lease Corporation for 12 737 MAXs, while Airbus announced $1.5 billion in orders for Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air and Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly.

Both companies also announced that they are going to aggressively target the service and maintenance market with the hope of boosting business.

Boeing values global demand for aerospace services at $2.6 trillion over the next decade. Europe and North America are expected to remain the biggest markets, but the fastest growth is set to come in Asia as well.

Boeing predicts the global aviation support market—which includes maintenance, engineering, training and information services and analytics—will be worth around $8.5 trillion between 2017 and 2036.

These services accompany the massive growth in global air traffic and demand for new aircraft—Boeing estimates more than 41,000 planes will be needed in the next 20 years for an estimated $6.05 trillion.

Boeing officials also spoke of customer feedback, and how they’ll make it part of the experience. They hear that customers are using more technology and data to make decisions, and it’s crucial to be part of their travel experience.

"It is clear that our customers, in both commercial and government sectors, are searching for more efficient ways to keep their fleets operating and ready for use in an age of rapid technological advancement," Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Global services, said in a statement.

"As commercial airline fleets continue to grow worldwide, demand for after-market services designed to increase efficiency and extend the economic lives of airplanes will follow."

Airbus estimates the services market will be worth $3.2 trillion over the next 20 years, including $1.85 trillion for maintenance alone.

The European giant also announced plans to install new floating black box flight data recorders on its long-haul planes from 2019.

Each plane will have with two recorders, one fixed in the forward part of the aircraft and a second in the tail, which could detach and float on the surface if the plane crashes in the sea.

This would help avoid a repeat of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board and has never been found.