Air travel in the Asia-Pacific region will outpace the world's average of 4.8 percent for the next 20 years, spurred by increased passenger demand, an executive from Boeing Co said yesterday.
"Air travel in Asia will expand significantly, led by the projected average growth from China of almost 9 percent," Randy Tinseth, Boeing commercial airplanes director, told a press briefing in Taipei yesterday.
Available seat miles between Taiwan and other Asian countries have doubled since 1990, with flight frequency expanding 2.5 times, Tinseth said.
The regional forecast will be further improved if Taiwan signs agreements with other nations, or opens up direct cross-strait flights in the future, he said.
The Chicago-based aircraft maker projects that worldwide operators will invest US$2.1 trillion for around 25,700 new commercial airplanes during the next 20 years, he said.
The region will demand nearly 7,200 new airplanes amounting to US$770 billion over the timeframe, remaining the largest market outside of North America for new commercial airplanes, he added.
Of all, smaller single-aisle airplanes will be the largest category, with deliveries hitting 3,690 units, according to Boeing's forecast.
"In the past 25 years, global carriers increased more flights to more destinations to meet growing market demand. But average airplane size dropped on the contrary," said Tinseth, who expects the trend will extend into the future.
This contradicts with the forecast of rival Airbus SAS, which expects the market needs larger aircraft in the future, with a size growth of 20 percent.
In view of a possible outbreak of avian flu, Tinseth said that there will not be a long-term impact as aviation is a resilient industry.
"In the past, we faced issues such as the 9/11 attack, SARS [and the] oil crisis but we survived," he said. "Air travel has now become essential for worldwide economic growth and the industry will remain resilient in the next 20 years."
Boeing will only report 290 aircraft deliveries by year's end, down from the initial target of 320 set earlier this year, as a result of employees' four-week strike in September, Tinseth said.
The company delivered 285 planes last year.
It will produce up to 395 aircraft next year, with higher capacity to come in 2007, he said.
The company will receive more than 650 orders this year, up from 277 last year. He said 35 percent of orders come from Asia, with other major purchases from the Middle East, Europe and the US.
In comparison, Airbus received 471 orders and reported 271 deliveries up to September.
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