Aerospace executives this week are gathering at the Farnborough Air Show, a biennial industry jamboree at an airstrip southwest of London that typically is buzzing with announcements from airlines about plane purchases.
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“Asia is very important to Airbus and Boeing”, said Mohshin Aziz, an analyst at Malayan Banking Bhd in Kuala Lumpur.
In addition, the report said that 500,000 new pilots will be required to fill available jobs in the industry.
Airlines and freight carriers are set to order 39,620 aircraft worth US$5.9trillion in the next 20 years, up 4.1 % from last year, airplane giant Boeing (NYSE:BA) said during the first day of Britain’s Farnborough Air Show.
Vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth said previous year 3.7 billion people traveled by air. Boeing estimates a market size of 28,140 narrowbody planes compared with an Airbus estimate of 23,530, a difference of about 20%.
The world’s top plane makers see demand driven by a growth in travel, especially in Asia, leading to a doubling of the world’s aircraft fleet. “China will soon be the world’s biggest aviation market and with emerging economies, further population concentration and wealth creation, together these will help to fuel strong air traffic growth”, said John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer, Customers.
As global GDP and world-trade growth accelerate, the manufacturer says air cargo traffic is projected
to grow an average 4.2 percent per year over the next 20 years.
Opening the Farnborough event, British Prime Minister David Cameron finalised multibillion-dollar deals with Boeing to buy nine P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and to upgrade 50 Apache helicopters.
The week-long Farnborough show takes place this year amid global turbulence from Britain’s shock European Union exit referendum. It means that a long-standing order for Airbus A380 double deckers, which Branson placed around a decade ago and has continuously deferred, looks certain to be cancelled.
However, the Pentagon’s chief arms buyer said he didn’t think the decision would fundamentally alter Britain’s ties with the United States of America military or weapons-related trade.
The head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Ray Conner, said the company was facing slower demand for widebody jets and would be vigilant about matching supply to demand, though it was too early to say whether it would again cut output of its 777.
In a sign of mounting competition in the single-aisle market, Boeing says it will redesign the smallest version of its 737 MAX plane, increasing seating to 150 by adding 12 seats.
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Xiamen’s memorandum of understanding envisages the supply of Max 200s – based on the 737 8 but with an extra door that permits a capacity of 200 – to its low-priced Jiangxi Airlines and Hebei Airlines units, according to a statement issued at the show.
