Singapore still pulling the jet set

Last week's Singapore Air Show was aided by the tailwind of strong growth in regional Asian carriers and organisers clocked up a record high of more than $32 billion (€23.5bn) in deals.

The event witnessed the first joint trade mission between Ireland and the United Kingdom, with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton joining British defence secretary Stephen Hammond to share a trade stand at the show.

More than 60 companies, including 42 from Ireland, participated in the four days of activities.

Among the deals were an expansion deal between Limerick’s Tango Telecom and Robi Axiata, one of the three largest mobile operators in Bangladesh.

Meanwhile Cut-e, which designs and implements online tests and questionnaires for recruitment, selection and development, signed a deal to provide online psychometric assessments to Morgan Advanced Materials in Asia.

ICDL Asia, a subsidiary of ECDL Foundation, announced it has entered an agreement with RVi Group Singapore to make ICDL available throughout Burma.

Quest Computing (Dublin) announced that its Asean subsidiary AIMS Software would partner Tech Mahindra to provide joint sales and marketing focus in addition to local system integration delivery capability.

Atlantic Projects signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian company Serba Dinamik Group.

“The contracts announced and the partnerships signed during the last four days clearly demonstrate the scale of opportunity for Irish companies willing to commit to doing business in this vast region of 600 million people,” said Mr Bruton.

The economic boom in Asia has seen people take to the skies in numbers never before seen, with a major boom in carriers offering cheap, short-haul routes.

Growth in orders has more than trebled since 2010.

The United States was the featured country at the show, but European manufacturer Airbus hogged the limelight, accounted for nearly half of the deals with almost $15 billion (€11bn) worth of orders for the A320 single-aisle aircraft and the A380 superjumbo, the world's biggest passenger plane.

Airbus received its first order of the year for the flagship double-decker at the show.

British-based leasing firm Amedeo signed a $8.3 billion (€6bn) deal for 20 A380s, and an order for 63 A320 jets worth $6.4 billion from fledgling Vietnamese budget carrier VietJetAir.

The Amedeo purchase agreement put Airbus on track to meet its target of 30 orders for the A380 in 2014.

"We were very pleased with this year's show. In addition to presenting the A350 XWB [wide body] for the first time, we announced orders valued at almost $15 billion, as well as the establishment of a new joint venture training centre with Singapore Airlines, " Sean Lee, Airbus's Asia spokesman, said in a statement from the show organisers.

US rival Boeing secured a commitment from Thai budget carrier Nok Air to buy 15 single-aisle Boeing 737s worth $1.45 billion (€1.06bn).

And in a sign perhaps of where things are going Burma's national carrier Myanma Airways signed a deal to lease 10 Boeing 737s that will fly on international routes as the formerly closed country continues to open up to the outside world.

The show is the largest combined aviation and defence show, with more than 1,000 exhibitors from 47 countries taking part, with over 40,000 visitors. Of this one third came from overseas.

Jimmy Lau, managing director of Experia Events, the show's organisers, predicted an "upward trend" for smaller aircraft plying domestic routes. This would have an impact on companies such as Brazilian manufacturer Embraer and Canada's Bombardier, selling into emerging markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Embraer secured a firm order for 50 of its E-Jets E2 aircraft worth $2.94 billion (€2.16bn) from Indian carrier Air Costa, which began operations only in October last year.

Purchase rights
The deal with Air Costa also includes purchase rights for 50 more of the aircraft, which can seat between 70 and 130 passengers.

The United States, which showcased both defence and commercial products, including the V-22 Osprey, C-17, P-8, Boeing 787 and Gulfstream 650, said it was happy with the way the show went.

“The visitors here are serious about seeking American technology, quality and potential partners. These are the customers that change business for our exhibitors and the reason why so many American businesses of all sizes come to this show,” said Tom Kallman, who managed the US pavilion at the event.