If the Paris Air Show is anything, it is global. It seems like every aerospace company is attending, and everything is for sale.
The customers are primarily the airlines and the military. Paris is a platform to sell, especially if you're the governor from the State of Washington with a very French sounding last name. Gregoire.
On Monday morning on CNBC, Gov. Christine Gregoire said "I would put my workforce in my state with a history of almost 100 years up against any workforce in the world. That's our advantage. "
The governor is trying to build the ranks of companies within Washington that make just about everything for airplanes. Their products range from tiny parts, to electronics to gigantic machine tools. And despite its deep Boeing roots, Washington is already one of the top suppliers to Airbus in the U.S. She wants to see existing suppliers expand, and new suppliers come into the state. So far she had met with about eight of them.
As Boeing has looked outside to widen its supply base, even older companies once captive to Boeing had to look outside to replace that business. Airbus helped fill that void and other companies are now looking to Washington companies.
Already the governor has also met with Airbus and Canadian plane maker Bombardier.
And then there is Comac, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. Just a few years old, Comac is building a plane likely to compete within China against Boeing's 737.
"This was a follow up meeting," said Gregoire, citing her first meeting with Comac on her trade mission to China last year. "They expressed some real interest to do some collaborative work with us."
Recently, the University of Washington's College of Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding with Comac to bring students here and exchange technical information.
But the governor is also trying to keep Boeing at home to build the next 737 in Washington as Boeing considers whether to build an all new 737 to replace existing models by the end of this decade. Are those goals in conflict? The governor doesn't think so.
"We can be the number one fan club for the home of Boeing," she said.. "While at the same time taking our supply chain and realizing it's going to be the suppliers for the competitors of the Boeing company. And that is good for the state of Washington.
By its own estimates, the future airplane market is huge. Just last week Boeing issued its updated Current Market Outlook that predicted the world would buy 33,500 new jets over the next 20 years built by all manufacturers. The single biggest chunk of that, about 23,000 planes, are those falling into the same class as the 737, a single aisle jet generally falling into the range of 100 to 200 seats.
The governor wanting to see as many of the parts going into those planes coming from the state of Washington, no matter which brand name is painted on the outside.
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