The UK’s aerospace trade organisation has said that this year’s Farnborough Airshow led to a surge in demand for new aircraft and engines in July, resulting in the largest-ever month-on-month increase in order books.

Data from the ADS Group reveals that the aerospace industry now has orders for 12,000 aircraft and 21,000 engines — estimated to be worth £135-155 billion to the UK over the next nine years.

ADS chief executive Paul Everitt said: “As an important event for the global aerospace industry, we expected to see a peak in orders during the Farnborough Airshow. However, the volume of firm orders placed throughout July was unprecedented, adding almost 650 aircraft and 1,100 engines to an already robust order book.

“Looking to the rest of the year, we expect the focus to shift to maximising production and delivery numbers. Already this year, we have seen the number of aircraft deliveries increase significantly, putting us on track for a record-breaking year.”

The figures show the success of the Government’s industrial strategy according to Jeegar Kakkad, chief economist at ADS. He said: “Countries around the world are sitting up
and taking notice of what is going on in the UK aerospace industry with the Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) and thinking: ‘We can use the UK as a base to launch into’.”

Mr Kaddad added that the UK aerospace industry, which is believed to produce about 10% of the world’s single-aisle commercial jets and around 20% of the wide-bodies ones, is continuing to invest in production to increase the rate of deliveries, thereby ensuring that it will be able to increase its market share as the demand for new aircraft increases.