Industry Growth Constrained By Production And Reliability Challenges
The commercial aviation industry is expected to see strong demand and profitability in 2026, with IATA forecasting almost 5.2 billion travellers and a record load factor of 83.8%. However, the sector is constrained by its own production machine, with a shortage of aircraft and a stretched MRO ecosystem. According to AeroTime, the industry has accumulated over 5,300 missing aircraft relative to pre-pandemic delivery trajectories, and normalisation is not expected before 2031-2034.