Boeing, Airbus eye 16,000-plane jackpot

SINGAPORE: Boeing and Airbus have never had it so good in Asia. The rapid growth of mainland Chinese carriers and the entry of many budget operators has meant billions of dollars in orders for the aircraft makers. At the Singapore Airshow this week, top officials from Airbus SE Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders to Boeing Co.'s vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth are due to outline their plans to capture that boom.

Asia Pacific is likely to have 3.5 billion passengers by 2036, adding more than double the forecast for North America and Europe combined, according to estimates by the International Air Transport Association. To meet that demand, Boeing estimates carriers will need 16,050 new aircraft valued at $2.5 trillion by 2036. "This is the fastest growing area in the world," Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of Boeing's Asia Pacific and India sales, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Juliette Saly at the Singapore Airshow Monday.

After a flurry of aircraft deals in the last decade, Airbus and Boeing continue wooing Asian customers for future orders as carriers in mainland China, and those in India and Southeast Asia such as SpiceJet Ltd. and AirAsia Bhd. expand their operations. With airlines chasing market share at the expense of profitability, unprecedented competition has strained finances at the region's marque carriers such as Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Singapore Airlines Ltd.

"There's a huge market there," said Rahul Kapoor, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence in Singapore. While airlines are looking for a balance between growth and profitability, "penetration is the name of the game right now.