Globetrotters in Northeast Asia have pushed the region’s procurement of wide-body aircraft to twice the global average, Boeing Co said yesterday.
Airlines in the Northeast Asia region — defined as Taiwan, Japan and South Korea — have begun to favor wide-body airplanes in light of growing demand for long-haul international travel, the company said.
Excluding Northeast Asia, the company expects global aircraft purchases to reach 42,700, or US$6.3 trillion, in the next two decades, of which, 73 percent are expected to be narrow-body planes and 19 percent wide-body planes.
Northeast Asian carriers are expected to purchase 1,450 aircraft for about US$310 billion — 46 percent wide-body planes and 43 percent narrow-body aircraft, Boeing’s forecast showed.
Taiwan and Japan have little domestic flight demand and as most flights are international, carriers would be buying more wide-body aircraft than other nations, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth said.
“Most single-aisle airplanes are used for domestic flights in geographically large nations,” he said. “The role of the single-aisle airplane in Taiwan has largely been replaced by the high-speed rail.”
The company reported that deliveries last year hit a new high record and that it had secured 631 new orders, about a 71 percent global market share, as of the end of last month, Tinseth said.
The company had delivered just under 600 aircraft as of the end of last month, he added.
Boeing’s sales were led by the single-aisle 737, followed by the wide-body 787, he said.
“Single-aisle airplanes will still be the most popular model,” Tinseth said.
Boeing also forecast that long-term GDP growth in Northeast Asia would reach 1.2 percent, while growth in Taiwan and South Korea would outpace Japan, leading to a 2 percent annual growth rate in passenger traffic.
Over the past decade, passenger traffic to and from Taiwan has nearly doubled, with an annual growth rate of more than 7 percent thanks to deregulation and an open skies policy.
“This year, we still see strong growth in this market,” Tinseth said.
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