According to Boeing’s head of Commercial Airplanes, demand for widebody jets, particularly freighters, is beginning to rebound, following the already robust demand for narrowbody planes.
While there were some downsides on the horizon, such as the war in Ukraine and rising global inflation rates, Stan Deal told the Aviation Club UK that the sector as a whole was recovering strongly.
“All of a sudden we’ve gone from a deep slowdown to a rapid acceleration,” he said. “We’re seeing now more demand for wide body.”
“Interestingly, it kind of started with the U.S. and then the Middle East and even into Europe.
“Not having the widebody totally synchronised to the narrowbody demand return has been a bit of help.”
He went on to say that the industry’s next key challenge will be supply chain resiliency. “Bringing that back is proving to be a bigger task. But I think it’s a momentary issue.”
In response to a tight labour market, he stated that he expects staff shortages in the airline industry to improve over time.
