The Farnborough International Airshow closed its opening day with $48.8 billion (£36.2 billion) of deals at list prices, and an estimated £7.7 billion of that work is heading to UK industry, a bigger slice than in 2024 despite a smaller global total.
Exclusive figures provided to Aerospace Global News by ADS Group, the trade body for UK aerospace, defence, security and space, show the day one total came in 4 per cent below the opening day of Farnborough 2024. The value flowing to UK companies, however, went up.
That is the figure that matters most for the British firms in the supply chain, from the engine makers down to the SMEs machining their components. Day one delivered firm orders for 234 commercial aircraft, worth an estimated £5.2 billion to the UK, a 13 per cent increase on the UK value generated by aircraft orders on the first day of Farnborough 2024, and 44 per cent more aircraft ordered.
Add in firm engine orders and the UK’s day one haul rises to £7.7 billion, roughly $9.9 billion at the exchange rate used by ADS.
SMBC leads with 200 narrowbodies
The aircraft tally was dominated by lessor SMBC Aviation Capital, which shopped on both sides of the aisle. It ordered 100 Boeing 737 MAX jets, split between 40 737-8s and 60 737-10s, then returned later in the day for 100 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, comprising 65 A321neos and 35 A320neos, with deliveries expected in the first half of the 2030s.
Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Air converted options for 28 Boeing 787 Dreamliners into firm orders, including 20 upgraded to the larger 787-10, and added six Airbus A350-1000s, taking its total commitment for the type to 31 aircraft.
Together, the SMBC and Riyadh Air deals account for all 234 firm commercial aircraft orders recorded by ADS on day one. Philippine Airlines separately announced a commitment for up to 20 Boeing 787-10s, comprising 15 aircraft plus purchase rights for five more, which will enter Boeing’s backlog once finalised.
Engines swell the UK total
The £36.2 billion headline also includes 466 firm engine orders covering engines selected for previously ordered aircraft, plus 60 engine options, 20 aircraft options and several helicopter orders. Stripping out the helicopters would trim the global figure only from $48.8 billion to $48.7 billion, and would leave the UK’s £7.7 billion untouched.
A note of caution on the numbers: they are based on historic or estimated list prices rather than the confidential discounts customers actually negotiate. As a measure of industrial workload, though, they are telling.
Fewer buyers, bigger cheques
ADS noted the deals came from fewer customers than in previous years, a reflection of the record order backlogs already sitting with aircraft and engine manufacturers. With Airbus and Boeing having sold much of their narrowbody production well into the next decade, delivery slots have become the scarce commodity, and only lessors and fast-growing airlines writing very large cheques can secure them.
For UK plc, the workload now stacking up is a double-edged prize. The order book is filling at the biggest Farnborough in the show’s history, yet the industry building those aircraft is advertising 10,000 unfilled vacancies a year, a squeeze felt hardest by the smaller suppliers competing with the primes for engineers.
With four days of announcements still to come, Farnborough 2026 has already banked almost $50 billion in deals and nearly £8 billion in potential work for UK aerospace. Not a bad Monday.
