Boeing sees business in Asian travel trend

SINGAPORE – Boeing believes airlines in the Asia Pacific region will see air traffic grow 6.3 percent each year over the next 20 years, and they will spend more than $1 trillion on new commercial jets to handle the increase.

Global air traffic, in comparison, will grow about 5 percent a year from now until 2026, Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing’s Seattle-based commercial airplane division, told reporters in Singapore on Monday.

“Within the Asia-Pacific market we see the strongest growth,” Tinseth said.

“This is a market that continues to liberalize, this is a market where trade is very strong, and this is a market where we have strong cultural connections around the region,” he said. “That’s why it’s growing much higher than the trend.”

Asia Pacific airlines are estimated to need about 8,350 new airplanes over the next 20 years – which will nearly triple the number of existing aircraft, Tinseth said. China alone is expected to take more than 3,000 new jet deliveries, he said.

Traffic within the Asia Pacific region is likely to expand 6.7 percent, while domestic air traffic within China is forecast to grow at 9 percent a year.

“China today is still a relatively small market, but by the end of the 20 year period it will be about the same size as the U.S. market today,” he said.

Boeing also forecasts 6.7 percent annual growth in long-haul travel between the Asia Pacific and Africa, a relatively new flow, as fuel-efficient twin-aisle jets become more widely used, Tinseth said.

And with the development of new hubs in the Middle East and India, air traffic between Asia and the Middle East is predicted to increase 5.8 percent, he said.

Boeing projects airlines worldwide will buy 28,600 new passenger and cargo planes over the next two decades.