That’s a full wrap on the 2025 Paris Air Show in terms of at-the-show live streams, but there’s so much more to come from The Up Front as we continue our analysis and work through the implications of everything we learned.
We’ll bring you our daily 40,000 Feet podcast tonight, Pro Readout industry intelligence on several very interesting topics, plus more show wrapup later this week (including our show-end 40,000 Feet episode), and much more to come.
Subscribe to The Up Front to unlock all our articles and our 40,000 Feet podcast. For even more critical industry intelligence, upgrade to become a Pro subscriber.
1542: Paris Air Show 2025 “very positive” for Airbus, says sales boss Saint-Exupéry
If this is indeed the last press conference of the show, as looks possible, Airbus executive vice president of sales for commercial aircraft Benoît de Saint-Exupéry reflects on the show: “I look at [it] very positively for what we have achieved commercially, with the backdrop that we know, which is a difficult and sad one. We have done a few good announcements on almost all products, so I would rate the Paris Air Show as extremely positive for Airbus.”
1528: Starlux signs for 10 A350-1000s, taking its total to 18 XWBs
Starlux chief executive officer Glenn Chai confirms that Starlux “will purchase an additional A350-1000 aircraft… and will introduce a total of 18 A350-1000 into our fleet.”
Starlux’s first A350 arrives towards the end of this year, with the first of this new order arriving from 2031 — a useful data point for the question about when a new A350 order might be delivered.
In response to our question, Starlux is keeping quiet on whether there’s any interior product change — Starlux has the Collins Elements/Elevation family herringbones up front, including a studio class seat, which it uniquely sells as first class rather than business-plus.
Starlux is also showing off its carbon-fibre livery for the A350-1000.
1422: South Africa’s Airlink to lease 10 Embraer E195-E2 from Azorra
Airlink is taking E195-E2s from previous orders for lessor Azorra, t0 be delivered from 2025 to 2027.
The Embraer release refers to these as “136 and 124-seat aircraft”, which would presumably mean two different cabin layouts for Airlink.
1317: A 26-seater all-business class ATR-72 for Air Tahiti
Heading off to Bora Bora or Raiatea? Air Tahiti Nui wants to get you there in style, with an all-business ATR 72 featuring Geven Eterea recliner seats.
The stats block for this Eterea:
- 26 seats on the aircraft
- 1-1 layout on the ATR
- 39 inches legroom
- 21.6 inches wide
- 7 inches recline
- side console for stowage
- USB A + C power
It’s ATR’s second all-business ATR, after Malaysia’s Berjaya Air.
1207: Your Wednesday #airshowlunch update, and it’s très très bon
It's good to be back in Paris — #airshowlunch at Chez Thales en terrasse this afternoon, catching up with industry colleagues. Delightfully French for a Wednesday lunchtime.
— The Up Front (@theupfront.media) 2025-06-18T11:48:57.935Z
1150: SkyWest orders 60 + 50 Embraer E-Jets, likely destined for US regional flying
US regional airline SkyWest — which flies all its regional aircraft as contract affiliated regional capacity for US major airlines including Alaska, American, Delta and United — is taking 60 more first-generation Embraer E-Jets.
1128: Egyptair adds 6 more A350-900 to its existing order, for a total of 16
Adding six to its original order of 10 A350-900s at the 2003 Dubai Airshow is Egyptair. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, is replaced from its existing fleet of 787s, 777s and A330s here, or if this indeed for growth as the Airbus press release suggests, with Egyptair CEO Ahmed Adel saying the goal is to “meet rising demand for long-haul travel [and] support our network expansion plans over the next five years”.
1116: It’s the warmest day of the show so far, so get the shade where you can...
Quick moment in the shade before an Embraer briefing — parasols are truly the low-tech solution that a Paris Air Show needs!
— The Up Front (@theupfront.media) 2025-06-18T09:15:52.674Z
1031: JSX will apparently be taking ATR 42s, marking a return to US flying for the European turboprop
So ATR hasn’t come out with a release for this, but it seems that they’re returning to US flying. If I were to bet, I’d imagine that it would be one of the premium-end or all-business ATR cabins, perhaps Geven Eterea recliners.
Update, 1354: notably, the release for the all-business cabin for Air Tahiti mentioned Berjaya Air as an all-business ATR operator, but not JSX… how curious.
BREAKING: Big move for ATR in the U.S., turboprops coming to JSX. Details forthcoming. #pas25
— Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower.com) 2025-06-18T08:31:49.722Z
0902: Getting inside the Boeing 777X mockup, and touching base on Boeing’s flagship airplane
Off to the Boeing 777 cabin mockup for a 777X programme briefing and cabin update.
Compared with the Aircraft Interiors Expo, Boeing has brought a much shorter mockup, and one without the AIX built-in cabin customisation options at the doors 2 entryways.
I’m struck by the fact that Boeing is putting such an emphasis on this airplane being a flagship, but is showing off a very standard Elevate (formerly Adient) Ascent doored suite as the cabin shot — which débuted on Qatar Airways in 2019.
0825: Kicking off with some strategic thinking about the A220, the “cute little airplane”
We’re starting off at the Airbus cabin today, talking A220, né Bombardier CSeries.
As we predicted, this “cute little airplane” (as former Airbus sales supremo John Leahy once quipped about the then-Bombardier jet) is one of the stories of the show: the big win for Airbus’ first order at LOT has been called a win over Embraer, but at the higher end of the A220’s capacity it’s also competing with the 737.
Subscribe to The Up Front to unlock all our articles, our nightly Paris Air Show special podcasts, and our critical industry intelligence for professionals.
