ASHIKAGA, JAPAN -- The coronavirus pandemic could easily have spelled the end for AeroEdge. For five years, the Japanese manufacturer in rural Tochigi Prefecture has mainly supplied one client, French engine maker Safran, and produced only one product -- turbine blades for two aircraft made by Airbus and Boeing.
The disruption and cancelations that hit the airline industry cascaded to small suppliers like AeroEdge, which employs 100 workers and whose orders had already plummeted due to last year's regulatory grounding of the Boeing 737 Max.
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