Cheaper fuel good for airlines but a concern for Boeing and Airbus

Paris

SHARPLY falling oil prices are a welcome boon to airlines, saving billions of dollars in monthly fuel bills for a highly competitive industry that last year eked out an average profit of just US$6 per passenger.

But what is good news for the airlines raises questions for the world's largest jet makers, Boeing and Airbus, which have been riding a wave of demand for the latest fuel-efficient jets, driven in large part by the stubbornly high price of oil.

The companies' total backlog of unfilled orders stands at more than 12,000 aircraft, valued at close to US$2 trillion and enough to keep their assembly lines humming for more than eight years.

That is, unless the current drop in oil prices represents something more significant than a short-term imbalance of global supply and demand, some analysts warn. A main concern is that carriers could delay orders in hopes of saving money by keeping their older,…