Follow local company’s blog and Twitter account at Paris Air Show
Add comment June 12th, 2009
Clinkenbeard, a rapid manufacturing and prototyping firm that serves the aerospace industry, is blogging and Twittering from the Paris Air Show next week. It’s one of four area companies who will be at the show, along with local and state economic development officials, touting this region as an aerospace cluster.
This is the world’s largest gathering of aviation-related manufactuers and other companies, but of course it’s a tough time in the industry. As the N.Y. Times reports, there will be a record 2,000 exhibitors from 48 countries, but no major plane debuts.
The world’s airlines had a net loss of $10.4 billion in 2008 and are expected to lose an additional $9 billion in 2009. Global air traffic is falling at rates faster than those seen in 2001: The International Air Transport Association expects passenger and cargo volumes to drop by 8 percent and 17 percent, respectively, this year.
The global financial crisis, which turned from a normal economic slowdown into an all-out panic after Lehman Brothers failed in September, has devastated the industry in a variety of ways. It choked off many airlines’ access to credit. The world’s biggest jet buyer is on the auction block, a consequence of the bailout last year of its parent, American International Group. And corporate jets, once de riguer for the world’s captains of industry and finance, have been ditched — at least for now — in a backlash against one of the most visible symbols of capitalist excess.
“The industry is not built to take this kind of stuff,” said Nick Cunningham, an aerospace analyst at Evolution Securities in London. With few airline customers in any shape to buy new planes and many considering delaying or canceling existing orders, he said, “it is inevitably going to have a serious impact on manufacturers and suppliers.”
But, looking longer-term, there will be demand again for planes. Developing nations in southern and southeastern Asia and the Middle East will need airplanes, and airlines will have to replace fleets eventually. Now’s as good a time as any for Rockford to keep trying to get its foot in the door - these jobs are among the best we can get.
