AIA Chief: Comac Has A Long Way To Go

SINGAPORE—Comac stole the show on the opening day of this year’s Singapore Airshow with its aircraft displays and first-ever order signing at an overseas event, for more than 50 C919 and ARJ21 airliners. But the Chinese aircraft manufacturer remains years away from becoming a serious challenger to Boeing or Airbus, maintains the leader of the U.S. aerospace industry’s trade association.

“There is always something new and shiny at an air show,” Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) President and CEO Eric Fanning tells Aviation Week.  “It doesn’t change my view of the duopoly in the world, and it won’t for a very long time. It’s one thing to have a plane here and take orders, but it’s another to be able to build and export at scale.”

The impressive view out of the back windows of AIA’s air show chalet is filled with aircraft on the static display, including multiple C919s and ARJ21s. Starkly absent, though, are any commercial aircraft from Boeing, which decided to sit out the display this year as it seeks to fix its 737 MAX program.

Fanning cautions not to read too much into those optics.  “I think we should take China’s goals seriously,” he says. “But they are seeing how difficult that technology is to create and maintain. I would still stack American products up against Chinese products in a very favorable way for us.”

Fanning, who was U.S. Secretary of the Army under President Barack Obama, notes that competition with China at Singapore Airshow also extends to the military realm. His two overarching objectives here are to promote American aerospace products and strengthen partnerships between the U.S. and nations in the Asia-Pacific.

“One of the things we’re focused on in Asia is this sense that China is pacing us” militarily, Fanning adds. “We have this incredible advantage they don’t have, these partnerships and alliances, and we ought to be leaning into those because it’s a force multiplier for us.”

A key aspect of those partnerships is U.S.-made military products. “If you buy American hardware, you’re going to have it for a long time,” he says.

One of the AIA chief’s efforts back in Washington is to facilitate more of those sales by simplifying and speeding up the cumbersome Foreign Military Sales process without compromising sensitive technologies. “When we have clear partners and allies whose values are aligned with us, we shouldn’t make it so difficult for them to buy from us,” Fanning says. “There are other places they can turn.”

He also expressed confidence in ongoing American support for security in the Asia-Pacific despite U.S. political turmoil that is holding up aid to Ukraine and threatening to undermine the NATO alliance in Europe. “I don’t see that in this region,” he says. “The commitment of the United States to Asia is pretty strong. This air show highlights it.”