Farnborough Air Show kicks off: top event is the unveiling of Qatar Airways' new QSuites
Tomorrow, Monday, July 22, kicks off the Farnborough Air Show, which together with the Paris Air Show is the most important event for [...]
Virgin Atlantic
Qatar Airways
JetBlue
British Airways
Air India
United Kingdom
The Farnborough Air Show kicks off tomorrow, Monday, July 22., which together with the Paris Air Show is the most important event for the world of aviation, aerospace and defense industry. The event is held in odd-numbered years at Le Bourget Airport in Paris and in even-numbered years at Farnborough, a small airport located about 50 km southwest of London, Great Britain.
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A quiet place for 725 consecutive days (since the event is held there every two years alternating with Paris), but which over the remaining five days becomes the center of the aviation world and the destination for tens of thousands of visitors, including stands of hundreds of companies, static displays of airplanes and demonstration flights.
The first three days of the event are reserved for the press and insiders, while the last two are open to the ticketed public. 'Poodle' Matteo Rainisio will be at the show to give you the most important news in real time.
To give an idea of the economic significance of the event as well, suffice it to say that during the last edition held in the south of England, the one in 2022, manufacturers (civilian and military) announced orders worth more than $50 billion.
Making headlines in this year's edition will be. two notable absences: Boeing, in fact, in the midst of controversy over the safety of its aircraft, decided not to bring to Farnborough either the Boeing 737 MAX, nor the 777-9. For the latter, this is the first absence from an Airshow since 2021.
The decision was made despite the fact that the very latest version of the 777 has received permission from the FAA to begin the certification process.
Everett's rival builder, Airbus, will instead bring to Britain its jewel, the A321XLR which has just received certification from EASA (for its version that mounts CFM Leap-1 engines). The aircraft will be on display on the apron and will also perform some exhibition flights.
The third largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world, Brazil's Embraer, will instead bring its E195-E2 e will announce upcoming upgrades for its family of E-Jets.
Speaking of news, there is Great anticipation for Qatar Airways' official unveiling of its 'QSuite Next Gen', the latest evolution of its suites that for years have dominated world rankings as the world's best business class product.
The new suites will be presented as full-scale mockups (models). The Qatar-based carrier will also bring one of its Boeing 787-9s to Britain.
Among orders from companies, the most anticipated are Korean Air's order for 30 Boeing 777-X (the Korean carrier had ordered 33 Airbus A350s a few weeks ago) and the $24 billion one from Asian low-cost Cebu Pacific for 152 planes of the A320neo family.
The full list of passenger aircraft that will be featured at Farnborough 2024 is as follows: an A350 from Air India with the new colors and cabins, an A220 from JetBlue, an A321XLR in Airbus' corporate colors, an A330-900 from Virgin Atlantic, an A320neo from British Airways, an E195-E2 in Embraer's corporate colors, a Boeing 787-9 and a Gulfstream G700 from Qatar Airways.
