Prices for commercial planes are expected to rise further, with trade tariffs impacting Boeing and Airbus, reported AFP.
According to an aviation expert, prices for commercial jets have already surged by about 30% since 2018.
The aerospace giants have faced rising costs for primary materials like titanium, components and energy along with increased labour expenses, reported AFP.
Addressing the labour strike, Boeing agreed to a new contract late last year with its Seattle-based machinist union that lifted wages by 38% over four years.
In a similar move, Spirit Aerosystems- a major supplier to both Boeing and Airbus, reached an agreement with similar wage increases just a month earlier.
Richard Aboulafia, Managing Director at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, told AFP that items that have inflated “at a particularly high rate” include castings, forgings and “anything titanium…especially since all that Russian capacity has been cut off from the US and, to a lesser extent, from Europe.”
Aboulafia estimates prices for material and equipment have risen 40% since 2021. That’s before Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium which are used in planes.
“It’s kind of ironic, raw materials were not a problem, but Donald Trump is determined to make them a problem,” said Aboulafia.
Commenting on the accelerating inflation in aviation, Joh Persinos, editor-in-chief, Aircraft Value News added, “that’s only going to get worse with these tariffs that are being imposed.”
Catalogue Prices - ‘Fiction’
The impact of tariffs is not mentioned in the companies’ stale official pricing literature, reported AFP.
“Catalogue prices were a complete work of fiction,” Aboulafia told AFP. “You got 50% off for showing up dressed nicely,” she added.
Airbus decided to abandon the use of catalogue prices "a long time ago" because they "were not closely correlated to the final price, which was based on each specific contract in terms of plane configuration and detail," the company said.
