Leading airline executives delivered a clear message to the world’s top aircraft manufacturers on Monday: don’t rush the next generation of commercial jets to market before the technology is truly ready.
Speaking at the Airline Leaders Summit during the Farnborough Airshow, Paul Kent, chief commercial officer at BOC Aviation, expressed serious reservations about a compressed timeline for new aircraft development.
“I’m not keen to see a new narrowbody in a 2030 time frame,” Kent told attendees at the summit.
Kent went on to explain the risks of releasing aircraft before they are fully developed. “When you launch aircraft and they are not mature at inception, and you build that maturity through the introduction of the program, it means that you need that program to run for a considerable number of years in order for it to achieve overall economic viability,” he said.
Kent’s concerns were in line with remarks previously made by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who during his budget airline’s first-quarter earnings call cautioned against placing too much emphasis on emerging technology.
“Until somebody gets Star Trek travel, and you start beaming people around the world…instead of flying them. I think we’re dealing with 737 Maxes and Airbus Neos for the next 10 or 15 years,” O’Leary said.
Not everyone in the industry shared the same hesitation. British Airways Chief Executive Sean Doyle indicated his airline would welcome whatever new aircraft Airbus brings to market.
“We’d be very interested in whatever they’re working on,” Doyle said.
