On Thursday the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance held a conference full of inspiration, innovation and information. Titled Power of the Past – Force of the Future, the event featured women who have broken barriers and blazed trails, all while balancing work and life.
A highlight of the morning’s session was Taking Off: Navigating the Aerospace Industry’s Current Market Landscape, featuring Martha Nuebauer of AeroDynamic Advisory.
Nuebauer kicked off with an examination of global air travel. While travel demand has returned to 80% of pre-COVID levels, China and the Asia Pacific region are still lagging. North and Latin America are almost fully back to 100%, with Nuebauer attributing the growth to reduced border restrictions. She expects full recovery by 2024.
A recent decline in regional flying in the U.S. stands in stark contrast to the overall rosy growth picture, due mostly to pilot shortages. As has been the case for years, mainline carriers hire from regionals, leading to pilot shortages. In response, some regional airlines have been raising pilot salaries, increasing customer costs. And regional aircraft are aging, increasing maintenance costs and leading to flight cancellations.
Nuebauer highlighted other labor problems with similar dynamics at play: lower tier suppliers see their best and brightest picked off by OEMs.
The supply chain continues to be a concern in aerospace. While supply chain problems have abated in other sectors, challenges like increased electronics demands and embargoes in Russia on raw materials are leading to slowdowns at both Airbus and Boeing, who are seeing increased undelivered aircraft inventories. From tail fittings to engines to insulation, aircraft that are almost complete sit and wait on one last thing.
Inflation remains a major issue as well, with sub-tier manufacturers most impacted. The industry expects high inflation to continue going forward, with OEMs passing along inflation to tier suppliers.
Speakers throughout the day included inspiring women from Boeing, Blue Origin, Pioneer, Crane, magniX, Amazon Global Air, and others.