If economic conditions were to deteriorate, or if more pronounced
market disruptions were to occur, there could be a new or
incremental tightening in the credit markets, low liquidity, and
extreme volatility in credit, currency, commodity and equity
markets. This could have a number of effects on the Company’s
business, including:
■ requests by customers to postpone or cancel existing orders
for aircraft (including helicopters) or decision by customers to
review their order intake strategy due to, among other things,
lack of adequate credit supply from the market to fi nance
aircraft purchases or change in operating costs or weak levels
of passenger demand for air travel and cargo activity more
generally;
■ an increase in the amount of sales fi nancing that the Company
must provide to its customers to support aircraft purchases,
thereby increasing its exposure to the risk of customer defaults
despite any security interests the Company might have in the
underlying aircraft;
■ further reductions in public spending for defence, homeland
security and space activities, which go beyond those budget
consolidation measures already proposed by governments
around the world;
■ fi nancial instability, inability to obtain credit or insolvency of key
suppliers and subcontractors, thereby impacting the Company’s
ability to meet its customer obligations in a satisfactory and