The air cargo business, booming as never before during the global pandemic, is massively dominated by Boeing jets that make up most of the worldwide air freighter fleet. Yet there is a threat to that dominance.
A severe air cargo market dislocation looms ahead that will make obsolete Boeing's current jet freighter lineup and provide an opening for rival Airbus.
Boeing has been bleeding cash through a cascade of crises — the 737 MAX crashes, the pandemic, the 787 delivery halt — and has lost significant engineering talent in the downturn. Yet if Boeing is to retain its iron grip on the jet freighter market, it must in the next few years develop and launch new cargo aircraft.
