No in-flight demonstration, no world premiere to unveil a new aircraft, no glaring contract announcements… Farnborough, southwest of London, will remain frozen in silence this week. While its digital twin will try to forget the cancellation, on March 20, of the air show which brings together, in alternation with the Parisian meeting of Le Bourget, the world's best aeronautics. Renamed FIA Connect 2020, the show opens this Monday (July 20-24) in the form of webinars and other video conferences. The first major air show in the "next world", it shows an industry knelt by the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis. In June, Boeing signed a single order and delivered 10 military aircraft. On the Airbus counter, no contract in June, for the second consecutive month, and 36 deliveries.
No chance that the 2020 edition will shine with record contracts like that of 2018 and its $ 192 billion in orders! After twenty years of growth, Airbus and Boeing saw their activity collapse in the wake of the fall in air traffic last spring. The recovery this summer is timid and limited. Taken in reverse while they were engaged in rate increases, Airbus and Boeing have adapted urgently. The two of them announced 31,000 job cuts and production cuts. The crisis is set to last between three and five years. Aeronautics is preparing for a different market where ecological requirements will take precedence. The environment is also one of the central subjects of the webinars organized this week in Farnborough.