Investors in aircraft should get set for turbulence

AIR shows are where the aerospace business shows off. At this year’s Paris show, the world’s largest, which opened at Le Bourget airport on June 19th, the military types are most ostentatious. Aeronautical party tricks include helicopters that ascend into the sky tail-first and stealth fighters that fly backwards.

But no one is keener to strut their stuff than Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two biggest makers of airliners. At the 2015 show the pair sold 752 planes worth around $107bn. But the party atmosphere at that event—with copious food and wine laid on for customers and journalists alike—has given way this year to a more sober mood, weaker sales and a bring-your-own-lunch policy. This should give pause to investors in one of the world’s fastest-growing asset classes: aircraft.