Aircraft delivery delays were brought to light as the trade portion of the Singapore airshow came to a close on Friday.
Given the aviation industry’s booming recovery on an uptick in demand since the pandemic, airlines used the event to question what major manufacturers Boeing Co (NYSE:BA, ETR:BCO) and Airbus Group (EPA:AIR) were doing to address delivery delays.
“Dozens and dozens” of engineers are being sent to directly assess supply chain bottlenecks, according to Airbus.
Airlines such as Lufthansa said spare parts were being stocked to mitigate lengthy wait times for orders, which Philippine budget airline Cebu Pacific warned could include 9-month delays next year.
Boeing faced a separate bout of scrutiny over an incident in which a door panel fell off one of its narrow-body 737 Max 9 jets mid-flight last month.
However, commentators said the US-based airline responded well to the challenge, with the event being used to showcase its military hardware and focus on long-haul commercial offerings.
"Boeing has responded in the right way,” International Air Transport Association boss Willie Walsh commented.
“They have taken ownership of the problem. They put their hands up. They acknowledged that there is a problem that they need to address and I think they're going about that in the right way.”
Indeed, Boring firmed up orders from Royal Brunei Airlines for four 787 Dreamliners and Thai Airways for 45 of the wide-body jets - though this had been pre-arranged last year.
This compared to 28 orders made for Airbus jets at the show, including from Vietjet Air and Taiwan-based Starlux for models of the wide-bodied A330 and A350s.