Podcast: What Should We Expect At the Singapore Airshow?

Aviation Week's Karen Walker, Jens Flottau and Chen Chuanren catch up before the Singapore Airshow, discussing the static display featuring COMAC, Airbus and Embraer, as well as LCC activity in Asia-Pacific region and the potential for major new aircraft orders at the show.

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Karen Walker: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for Window Seat, our Aviation Week air transport podcast. I'm Aviation Week air transport editor-in-chief Karen Walker. Welcome onboard. Next week starting on Feb. 3, we'll see the 2026 Singapore Airshow being staged at the Changi Exhibition Center. Like the other major international air shows that cover all sectors of the aviation and aerospace industry, the Singapore Airshow is held every other year, so last year was the turn of the Paris and Dubai shows in July. This year we'll see Farnborough in the UK. So, I'm now joined by two of my editor colleagues who, like me, will be at the Singapore Airshow covering the commercial air transport side. And they are ATW Southeast Asia editor and China editor, Chen Chuanren, and Aviation Week commercial aviation executive editor Jens Flottau. So, we'll be discussing what we expect to see and hear at the show from an air transport perspective.

As a side note, I'll be attending and moderating a panel at the Changi Aviation Summit that will be held on Feb. 2 and will include lots of airline senior executives, transport ministers and air transport industry and organization leaders. And I'm sure a lot of those will be at the air show. The theme of that summit is “rising above disruption, building the aviation ecosystem of tomorrow.” So back to the airshow and what will be on people's minds there. Chuanren, Jens—welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. And Chuanren, you are based in Singapore, of course. Let's start with you and what do you know about the commercial aircraft that we expect to see flying or in the static displays this time?

Chen Chuanren: Hi Karen. Hi everyone. Yeah, I think to start off the lineup for the Singapore Airshow flying or static display is one of the more highly anticipated programs that everyone is looking out for this time around. The organizers were quite cheeky, and they only released the lineup pretty late as compared to other years. And of course, what took my attention and our counterparts' attention was the absence of Boeing again. So they obviously were not represented two years ago in 2024. That's of course we understand due to Boeing wanting to stay low profile following a few safety-related incidents. But then again, you expect them to come up guns blazing in 2026 to catch up with what they have lost two years ago, but lo and behold, no aircraft represented this time round in flying or on static. So that is the biggest takeaway. Airbus, they of course they have stepped up with two A350-1000s, so that's pretty interesting.

So, they're one [in] in-house colors, the demonstrator aircraft for flying, and a Starlux A350-1000 on static display, which they'll be showing in their unique four-class configuration. Beyond Airbus, COMAC is also coming flying into Singapore again, they stole the headlines two years ago. So this time around they are coming in with the C919 flying and on static. The appearance of COMAC comes pretty interesting at a time where they just unveiled, unofficially, the shortened version of the C919 just a few days ago. Although we are quite sure that the aircraft will not be in Singapore, but what the aircraft means, it'll generate even more attention to the COMAC delegation. And of course we have Embraer, again, very consistent in sending aircraft to Singapore, this time with Hunnu Air carrier from Mongolia with E195-E2 this time.

Karen Walker: Now I'll just make clear, you're absolutely right, people are definitely looking and saying, oh, Boeing's not having any aircraft again at the show, but Boeing will be there, they will be represented, they have executives there talking about what they're doing, what their forecasts are, et cetera. So they will be there as people, just not as aircraft. So Jens, what's your take on that? How do you read that? What does it mean about Boeing and also what does that mean for COMAC, Embraer and most of all Airbus?

Jens Flottau: I thought about that a little bit. I don't think I would like to read too much into it. It's kind of their way, how they approach air shows. Singapore is not the only air show where they've been a little less active than Airbus, who tend to be there in much bigger force when you just count the aircraft. That's true in Dubai, too, or other shows. And as you say, they are there, regardless. Southeast Asia is hugely important for Boeing. Lion Air, a big low-cost carrier, huge customer. Singapore Airlines, of course, a huge customer desperately awaiting 31 777-9s, which are obviously much delayed. So Boeing does have issues there to talk about with its customers there. This year I'm actually more interested in two other manufacturers, one being COMAC, one being the other, one being Embraer. COMAC has used Singapore as its shop window to the world already.

Two years ago they had, I believe, was it two aircraft, Chuanren? C909 and C919—or even three, I can't remember—but they were there in force, had a big stand. They're coming back again and it's really for the western world, one of the few opportunities to get in touch with them and to see the aircraft. The other aircraft manufacturer being Embraer. Embraer just announced that they are looking at or establishing another final assembly line in India together with a local partner, which shows that they are hugely committed to Asia. And in Singapore itself we have the Scoot operation. Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ subsidiary, is flying Embraer E2s in the region. And that one is very, very interesting to me. They've been flying for, what is it, one or two years now, and I'm really curious to see how that's working out for them in terms of economics and routes and how the aircraft's behaving in that region.

Karen Walker: And Embraer, of course, yeah, they do seem to be getting a little push in this region. They also had success with ANA in Japan, so it's obviously becoming an important region for them also. Chuanren—on the China front, you said they had a major presence. COMAC had a major presence at the last Singapore air show for China in general, how do you read what China will be looking to do at the Singapore Airshow this year?

Chen Chuanren: Well, as we know, Singapore is the commercial hub of Southeast Asia and the gateway to Southeast Asia. What China is looking to do is to get a foothold in Southeast Asia where several certain countries as part of its so-called Belt and Road initiative, countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand to a certain extent, and they want to use this initiative to market their aircraft. So give you some examples, Laos a relatively poor country in Southeast Asia. They have acquired COMAC C909 and TransNusa in Indonesia—they have C909s financed through certain financial mechanism through COMAC and CALC, the leasing company from China, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, by the way. And of course, through proximity. You have lots of Southeast Asian delegations coming into Singapore for the Singapore Airshow, and therefore it is the default air show for COMAC to showcase their aircraft to the potential customers in Southeast Asia.

Karen Walker: And Chuanren, what are your thoughts—what are you feeling about how strongly this show will be supported by the airline people?

Chen Chuanren: Well, the Singapore show will be pretty interesting. It comes at a time of very uncertain geopolitical situation, partly because you have conflicts playing out. The US military is not present as much in the Singapore Airshow, but that's another story altogether. But I think at the end of the day, airlines still want to come down to Singapore to talk [business.] No doubt the timing for the Singapore Airshow is very weird in February, which might not fall in the financial calendars for certain airlines depending how you look at it, but it is a very important platform for airlines in the region to speak to potential suppliers to beef up their fleet. I mean, Southeast Asia is identified as one of the fastest growing air transport markets as a block, but then again, airlines in the region are not getting their aircraft fast enough. And of course, in Southeast Asia, personal relations, face-to-face relations is very important and therefore Singapore show will remain to be important despite what the geopolitical situation is out there.

Karen Walker: Jens, what are your expectations in terms of airline executive presence at the show? Do you anticipate it mostly being as Chuanren says, Southeast Asia, China, maybe Indian, of course, airline executives, or will there be airline representation from outside of Asia?

Jens Flottau: I mean, looking at some of the programs also that the summit that you referred to at the beginning, it seems that it's pretty focused on Southeast Asia—and that's a large enough region. I looked up some numbers in preparation for this. So, the installed fleet is just below 1,600 aircraft, but the airlines in the region have ordered 1,700 aircraft to either replace the in-service fleet or to grow their fleets. Interestingly, 85% of the orders are narrowbodies. So that tells you there's a lot of low-cost carrier activity in the region. And that segment in particular has been developing just over the past few years. So I do expect a lot of LCC presence there and hopefully potentially there are more orders to come. And Chuanren mentioned the deliveries. There haven't actually been that many deliveries to the region in recent years because of all the supply chain problems, mainly. Airbus delivered only 42 aircraft to Southeast Asia last year, and Boeing delivered 15. Of course, some lessors placed aircraft to airlines in the region as well. But it's not many given how large the airlines are. But that is changing now. For this year we're expecting 124 deliveries to the region and in 2027, 189. So that is picking up. And obviously the Singapore Airshow is in that sense, the timing's great to talk to the suppliers and prepare the delivery ramp-up.

Karen Walker: Those are interesting numbers. Yeah, that's an interesting detail there, Jens, that sort of leads me to what’s on everybody's mind. What are your thoughts about the prospect for new aircraft orders at this show?

Jens Flottau: Chuanren, correct me if I'm wrong, but the big rumors are whether or not AirAsia will buy A220 or E2s. That would be interesting from two different angles. Obviously, it would change the business model of AirAsia because they would be introducing a smaller aircraft. It would be also a huge boost for the A220 program, which is not doing that great. The backlog today is smaller than it was in 2018 when Airbus bought the program from Bombardier. So there is a need to beef up the program. That's top of my mind. I think a lot of the legacy carriers are also looking at additional orders. The general widebody boom that we're seeing across the world right now is also very, very imminent in that part of the world, in Southeast Asia.

Karen Walker: So hopefully we will see a few checkbook signings here. Chuanren, what about other sorts of announcements, things like partnerships or sustainability initiatives, that's become quite a big thing in this region. So do you expect announcements along those lines?

Chen Chuanren: Yeah, there's a few announcements that I would expect outside of order books. One is in the areas of MRO. Singapore is a very, very big MRO hub for the major OEMs like Pratt [& Whitney], Rolls-Royce, CFM, et cetera, et cetera. So I understand that the local government is trying to encourage OEMs to pump in more investments into Singapore and to increase MRO capability and capacity from Singapore. And that will definitely be a welcome sign for airlines around the world and in the region. That's one thing. And the second thing is of course, sustainability. Two years ago, they had sustainability as the topic, but I think this is the year that finally the issue, the topic of SAF sustainability, is finally moving along. Number one is with the new SAF levy that Singapore is going to impose in the later part of the year, which is first in the world. And of course, you have many new SAF refineries popping up in the region. There's one that's just opened in Malaysia a couple of days ago, that's further downstream. So the sustainability agenda is finally moving, and I expect that topic to be heavily discussed in the many, many panels that's going to happen in Singapore Airshow as well.

Karen Walker: So we'll find out all of this next week. So Chuanren, Jens, I look forward to seeing and working with you in Singapore. A huge thank you to our listeners. Remember, you can track all our coverage of the air show at aviationweek.com, where we'll also be posting our dedicated commercial air transport show news on aviationweek.com/onlocation. So check that out. Also, thank you also to our producer, Cory Hitt. This is Karen Walker, disembarking from Window Seat.