Sliding airline profits and plane delays cast shadows at air show

By Joanna Plucinska and Allison Lampert

FARNBOROUGH, England (Reuters) - A plunge in Ryanair's quarterly profits cast a shadow over the opening of the Farnborough Airshow on Monday, where aviation leaders were already fretting about supply chain snags, aircraft delays and floundering plans to cut emissions.

Boeing announced a bumper order from Korean Air for 20 777X jets and 20 787s, worth $7 billion according to estimated delivery prices from Cirium Ascend, in a boost for the U.S. planemaker's long-delayed 777X programme.

But many delegates at the July 22-26 gathering of aviation leaders were not expecting the traditional deluge of deals as Airbus struggles to reach output goals and Boeing adopts a low-key posture amid its safety crisis, which was triggered by a panel flying off a 737 MAX jet in January.

Aviation was hit hard by the pandemic which saw air travel collapse only to bounce back sharply. That left many firms scrambling to resolve labour and parts shortages.