Boeing will not offer passenger planes. Airbus, China will

SINGAPORE – Boeing will not bring any commercial jets to the Singapore Air Show, shifting the spotlight on passenger jets to rival Airbus as well as domestic displays in China.

This comes as Boeing reported a decline in aircraft orders and deliveries in January following a mid-flight fuselage panel explosion on one of its 737 MAX 9 aircraft at the beginning of the year.

While there will be air displays of commercial aircraft by Airbus and China's domestic jetliner COMAC C919, Boeing will not have any commercial aircraft at the air show.

To be clear, Boeing will continue to showcase its defense capabilities, and will display several of its fighter jets, including the B-52 Stratofortress that will participate in the USAF air show.

While no commercial aircraft will be on display, Boeing will still maintain a display booth for the wide-body 777X passenger jet, which the company claims is the world's largest twin-engine aircraft. Aircraft deliveries, expected from 2025, have suffered delays.

The Singapore Air Show – held from February 20 to 25 – is Usually attended In dozens ThousandsAmong them are military delegations and aviation enthusiasts.

Other leading aerospace and defense companies, including Lockheed Martin, Dassault, Saab, Leonardo and Thales, are among those participating in this year's event.

It is the first major international aviation event since the explosion last month, which plunged Boeing into another safety crisis after US safety regulators ordered the temporary grounding of more than 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.

A door seal exploded in midair on an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after taking off from Portland, Oregon, on January 5, an incident that did not seriously injure passengers on board but left Boeing executives scrambling to regain the trust of corporate customers. Aviation, investors and regulators.

China is also preparing to display and fly the C919 narrow-body commercial aircraft, developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or COMAC.

It will be one of the most anticipated air shows at the biennial event, as it is the first time China has flown its domestic aircraft to an international audience.

Although the plane is only certified by Chinese authorities, industry experts said it could be an early challenger to the commercial aviation monopoly between Boeing and Airbus.

“The industry contacts we spoke to believe the issues with Boeing, specifically the 737 MAX, represent an early opportunity for COMAC,” Chris Olin, a North Coast research analyst, told CNBC.

According to Olin, the C919 may eventually break into Boeing's MAX market share, but he noted that “the impact of the C919 is likely to be muted over the next couple of years, with aircraft production expected to be limited to 75-100 aircraft per year.”

Even with the MAX crisis and supply chain disruption looming large across the industry, analysts expect the impact on Boeing to last only in the short term.

““In terms of orders, 2023 was the best year ever for Boeing commercial aircraft orders and was particularly strong in December,” said Miles Walton, managing director at Wolfe Research, highlighting that like Airbus, Boeing is expected to see Delivery is higher year on year.

“Given Boeing's lower starting level in 2023, the 2024 delivery growth rate will likely be higher, although the amount of growth will be more similar,” Walton said.

— CNBC's Leslie Josephs contributed to this story