This week Ethiopian Airlines and Boeing announced that the African carrier, the largest operator of Boeing aircraft on the continent, had placed a new order for nine Boeing 787-9s.
It was a good start to the year for Boeing and it also got a few industry pundits thinking. Last year, Travel Daily was one of the first to report on comments from a senior Ethiopian executive suggesting that flights to Australia could be on the cards.
Will this order make it a reality and open new opportunities for African tourism?
Regardless, there is one small issue when it comes to aircraft orders at the moment, and that is aircraft deliveries.
Earlier this month, both Airbus and Boeing released their 2025 order and delivery figures, which made for interesting reading and confirmed, that in terms of orders, European Airbus had finally been toppled by its US counterpart after 10 years at the top.
That’s good news for the Washington state-based company, but…
The problem was that it failed to achieve the same result in terms of deliveries, with Airbus outstripping Boeing by 193, even after Airbus downgraded its delivery expectations.
According to Forecast International, “as of December 31 2025, Airbus reported a backlog of 8,748 commercial aircraft, excluding the A320ceo… Boeing’s backlog totalled 6,713 aircraft at year-end, excluding 777-300ER positions”.
At the current rate of production, for both manufacturers, that is a backlog of more than 11 years.
According to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) calculations, the industry would currently have over 5,000 more planes in the air if pre-2019 aircraft production trends had carried on.
The backlog has meant that the average age of an aircraft in commercial service is now over 15 years old – more than a year older than the average between 1990-2024.
So, it’s great that Ethiopian has kicked off Boeing’s account book so early in the year, but will we see one of its aircraft in our skies regularly any time soon? Unlikely, according to a few of the execs I spoke to, but I would like them, and myself, to be proven wrong.
There is one winner out of all of this though (aside from avgeeks like me who enjoy flying on older planes): engine manufacturers. Think of the maintenance costs.
Reuters published a fantastic graph here showing the share price of key aircraft engine manufacturers Rolls Royce, GE Aerospace and Safran compared to the S&P 500. Congratulations to anyone in this industry who has invested in any or all of them.
The rest of the week…
Airbus versus Boeing wasn’t the only aviation biffo this week – enter Michael O’Leary, Ryanair CEO, who managed to get into a tit-for-tat about wi-fi with none other than Elon Musk.
If you ever wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of the economics of commercial aviation wi-fi with a little bit of name calling on the side, this is for you.
In more serious news, CVFR Group continued to make gains in New Zealand, covered first by Travel Daily.
Phil Goad has been selected by CVFR Consolidation Services as its new commercial manager for New Zealand.
Goad brings more than three decades of travel industry experience, most recently as national sales manager for Expedia TAAP New Zealand.
In more big people news, it was announced that Peter Egglestone will take over from Russell Carstensen as chief executive officer for Melbourne-based travel tech business Aeronology.
The appointment marks Egglestone’s first major leadership role since departing Zenith Payments in April 2025. He is tasked with scaling Aeronology’s commercial operations and strengthening customer outcomes.
And it wasn’t a quiet week on the cruise front either. Cruise Weekly Editor Myles Stedman held up the Thursday issue when more news on Aman at Sea’s Amangati dropped just on deadline.
It announced the inaugural program of five- to eight-night itineraries designed around late departures and overnight stays, exploring Dalmatia, Spain’s Mediterranean coast, and the French Riviera, including rarely accessed ports such as Beaulieu-sur-Mer.
And Royal Caribbean’s fifth Icon-class ship has begun to take shape, with the line celebrating the first cut of her steel.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s elimination of non-commissionable fares was met with plenty of applause from travel advisors, including Clean Cruising’s Jean Summers and Travel Associates’ Gillian Woodley, who Myles interviewed for Wednesday’s lead story.
“The proportion of these fees within the overall cruise fare varies significantly between cruise lines and can, in some cases, make up close to 30% of the total fare,” Summers explained.
“Although it’s been discussed with various cruise lines over the years, we have generally not had any success in seeing this addressed.”
Meanwhile, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is planning to focus on cruise, with its Andaman Gateway initiative placing Phuket at the centre of future opportunities, via the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle project. It’s going to be a busy year in cruise.
Another week down in the travel industry.
Enjoy your weekend.
Damian Francis
