China, India drive demand for airlines
BOEING yesterday released its current market outlook (CMO) report at the Paris Air Show, which showed that China and India would drive demand for new air planes in the next 20 years in a market it estimated would be worth $6.1 trillion (R79.69trln) by 2036.
The report found that China had contributed significantly to world traffic growth for several years, as its passenger growth had increased at an average rate of more than 10 percent a year.
Boeing’s report also found that India’s emergence as a high-growth economy was fuelling more than 20 percent passenger traffic growth a year in its domestic market. India was expected to become the third largest commercial aviation market by the early 2020s.
The middle class in both countries combined grew from 80 million in 2000 to 135 million last year, an increase of nearly 70 percent.
Randy Tinseth, president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said there had been significant airport investment in most regions of the world with Asia-Pacific accounting for about 40percent of that investment.
“For example, between now and the end of 2021, nearly $1trln will be invested in new and existing airports world wide, with Asia-Pacific accounting for about 40percent of that investment,” said Tinseth.
Boeing’s CMO was the longest
running jet forecast and regarded as the most comprehensive analysis of the aviation industry. The company expected that a total of 41 030 planes would be delivered across the globe in the next two decades with a lion share of this expected to be delivered to AsiaPacific at 16 050 planes.
North America would take receipt of 8 640, while the Middle East was projected to take 3 350 new planes in the next 20 years.
Europe would take possession of 7 530 new planes in the period, while Africa was expected to have 1220 new planes in its skies by 2036.
Tinseth said the single-aisle segment would see the most
growth over the forecast, fuelled by low-cost carriers and emerging markets. He said 29530 new air planes will be needed in this segment, an increase of almost 5 percent over last year.
“Passenger traffic has been very strong so far this year, and we expect to see it grow 4.7percent each year over the next two decades. The market is especially hungry for single-aisle air planes as more people start travelling by air,” he said.
Meanwhile, Boeing received more orders and expression of interest at the Paris Air Show than its rivals, Airbus.
The US company said yesterday that it had secured 571
new orders during the industry event, while Airbus said it won new commitments for a total of 326 aircraft.
This included firm orders for 144 aircraft worth $18.5bn and expression of interest for 182 aircraft worth $21.2bn.
John Leahy, chief operating officer at Airbus Commercial Aircraft said: “Our commercial success this week at Paris extends our already diversified order backlog to a new industry record of over 6800 aircraft, with 326 orders worth $40bn.”
Leah also announced that he would step down from his position this year. He is largely credited with leading the massive expansion in Airbus’s market share from 1993 onwards.