Farnborough 2026 · Day 2 Field Notes

Global capability is built through trusted partners who collaborate across regions as one team.

Our second day at the Farnborough International Airshow brought together partners from across our IMD International Search Group Aerospace Practice network — combining regional perspectives, industry relationships, and market knowledge around a shared commitment to aerospace and aviation. The photo above is a small sample of that team, taken between meetings on the flightline.

What moved on the show floor

Tuesday’s commercial-aerospace side was steady rather than flashy — a more measured order pace than Monday, but the mix told a clearer global story (Forecast International).

• AerCap, the leasing industry’s largest 787 customer, ordered 15 additional 787-9 Dreamliners with substitution rights to the 787-10, taking its 787 portfolio to roughly 140 aircraft.
• Luxair converted two 737-10 options into firm orders and secured two more options, bringing its 737 fleet plan to twelve aircraft.
• Uganda Airlines placed its first-ever Boeing order — four 737-8s and four 787-9s — to grow and modernize its fleet.
• Shohin Airlines (Tajikistan) disclosed a four-aircraft A320neo family order with Airbus.
• Philippine Airlines signed an MoU covering nine A350-1000s, adding widebody balance a day after committing to up to 20 787-10s.

Alongside the commercial order book, the defense and technology side kept its own steady drumbeat — advanced-air-mobility platforms, hypersonic-adjacent programs, and additive-manufactured engine components continued to draw attention from primes and their tier-ones.

One team, many regions

Our conversations with clients, candidates, and industry leaders reinforced a fundamental reality: the sector’s challenges are increasingly global, while effective solutions must remain grounded in local markets, cultures, and operating environments.

A few threads recurred across the day:

• Fleet growth is being placed by carriers that would not have made a Farnborough headline five years ago. Uganda Airlines, Shohin, Luxair — the story is broadening beyond the traditional order-book leaders, and the leadership profiles those airlines will need to absorb new fleets are meaningfully different from what a US or European legacy carrier would draft.
• Substitution rights are becoming a leadership question, not just a commercial one. AerCap’s 787-9-to-787-10 optionality mirrors what we are hearing from OEM program leaders — the profile that can hold a program open across two configurations is scarcer than the profile that can execute one.
• Widebody capacity is being commissioned faster than the engineering benches to support it. Two consecutive days of 787 and A350 orders raise the same downstream question for tier-ones: who is going to certify the derivative structures, and where do they live?
• Cross-border partners are moving from referral relationships to shared mandates. The clients we spoke to want one accountable team across three or four geographies — not a handoff between firms with different methods and different bars.

Why the partner model matters here

This combination of global reach, regional depth, and close collaboration is what lets us support aerospace and aviation clients wherever their leadership and talent needs emerge. The IMD International Search Group model exists precisely because the sector’s decisions are not single-country decisions — a plant leader in Querétaro, a VP Engineering in Toulouse, and a program director in Wichita can all belong to the same mandate, and the search has to reflect that.

Grateful to our partners for the insight, energy, and shared purpose they brought to Farnborough. More conversations ahead, and more field notes to follow.

If you are here through the week and would like to compare notes, the simplest route is through the practice and we will coordinate.

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Jose J. Ruiz is CEO and Managing Partner of Alder Koten, President of IMD International Search Group, and Chairman of Anker Bioss.