In Summary: Singapore Airshow 2024

February 24, 2024

SINGAPORE, 24 FEB | The 2024 Singapore Airshow was a rather interesting spectacle to witness. Although the amount of orders paled in comparison to previous airshows such as the Dubai Airshow 2023, the Singapore Airshow brought a major competitor to the Airbus-Boeing duopoly to the limelight. China's COMAC absolutely dominated the Singapore Airshow, overtaking both Airbus and Boeing in aircraft orders during the week. Lets begin:

On Day 1, Boeing got the ball rolling with the very first order for 45 Boeing 787-9 jets by Thai Airways. This was in spite of their lack of presence at the airshow, with no static or flying displays at all, coupled with their troubles with the 737MAX program. This was also quickly followed by an order for Royal Brunei Airlines with an order for 4 787-9 Dreamliners, which would aid their current fleet of 787-8s from 2028.

COMAC then kicked off with a a massive order by Tibet Airlines for 40 C919s and 10 ARJ21s in a special high-altitude configuration. Moreover, China's Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Group also ordered 6 special variants of the ARJ21- bringing COMAC's order book up to 56, which was 7 more than Boeing managed to clinch at the time.

To end Day 1, Maldivian has also ordered 2 additional ATR72-600 turboprops, bringing their total fleet to 7 of the type, while both Airbus and Embraer failed to garner any orders.

Day 2 saw a minor order for Airbus which was by Taiwanese carrier STARLUX for 5 Airbus A350 Freighters and 3 additional A330-900neos which will be delivered around 2026. Interestingly, this week Airbus also announced an increased payload for the A350F up to 111 tonnes, which may have sparked interest for the aircraft for many airlines, such as STARLUX. Due to the ICAO's enhanced emission standards, many airlines will have to switch over to newer freighters such as the A350F and B777XF by 2027.

On Day 3, the final order for the airshow was placed which was by VietJet for 20 A330-900neo aircraft. With that, COMAC gained the most orders at the airshow at 56 units, followed by Boeing with 49, then Airbus with 28 jets. ATR managed to obtain 2 orders with no orders for Embraer.

Additionally, the highly-anticipated Weekend@Airshow resumed, which opened the airshow to the public for the first time since 2020. While the convention centre booths, static displays and flying displays were spectacular, the first day of the event was highly criticised and was rather poorly excecuted. The never-ending shuttle queues and extremely long queues, coupled with the lack of interactive static displays and no commercial aircraft flying displays made many of the visitors exhausted and disappointed with the airshow. Nonetheless, STARLUX's A330, Embraer's E195 Tech Eagle and various COMAC aircraft (including the world's first C919) were definitely the sight to see!

Check out our new video on YouTube (which will be releasing soon) for photos and videos of the airshow!

© 2024 Planeopedia LLP
Written by: Sohail Sawlani
All Rights Reserved
UEN: T23LL0860H

Sources

Compilation of previous articles sources on SG Airshow 2024