Airbus exec says demand strong, sees dawn of wide-body recovery
2022.06.19 16:55
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FILE PHOTO: Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer is interviewed by Reuters at the International Air Transport Association’s Annual General Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 4, 2021. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
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DOHA (Reuters) – Demand for medium-haul jets is picking up sharply as air travel rebounds from the pandemic and the aviation market is also now seeing a glimmer of recovery in demand for bigger wide-body jets, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer said.
The planemaker faces extreme uncertainty over its supply chains but remains confident of its ability to raise narrowbody jet output by 50% over the next three years compared with current output “cruising past 50” jets a month, he said.
Scherer said on the sidelines of an airline industry summit that tentative new demand for larger long-haul jets could push that segment of the market out of the doldrums and into “undersupply” by the mid-2020s or the second half of the decade.