CHINA : The next Big Thing for Regional Jets Firm projects huge market for new airplanes
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The Boeing Co is set to outline its 2003 current market outlook for the People's Republic of China today, forecasting a requirement in China for nearly 2,400 new planes worth US$197 billion over the next 20 years.
China's airlines will add 1,960 new planes to serve domestic markets including Hong Kong and Macao. Nearly 440 new planes will be added by China's airlines to provide international services.
""Regional jets and single-aisle aircraft will account for 87 per cent of the planes delivered to serve the domestic market. More than 560 intermediate-size, twin-aisle planes will be delivered to serve both domestic and international markets.""
By 2022, Chinese carriers will be flying more than 2,850 passenger and cargo planes, making China's fleet the largest outside of the United States. In fact, China's commercial jet fleet will quadruple in size over the next 20 years.
In 2022, single-aisle airplanes will remain as the core of China's fleet, representing nearly two-thirds of the total. Ten per cent of the units in the 2022 fleet will be small and intermediate-size regional jets. Another 22 per cent will be intermediate-size, twin-aisle aircraft, and only 4 per cent will be 747-size and larger.
The need for new planes is required to support a 7.1-per-cent annual increase in air travel in China from 2003 to 2022, compared to the world average of 5.1 per cent.
"China is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for commercial aviation," said Randy Baseler, vice-president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
"China's 20-year gross domestic product (GDP) forecast is 6.2 per cent - the highest in the world - and Boeing projects that domestic air travel growth will outpace the GDP growth over the next two decades."
The Boeing forecast estimates the world fleet will more than double by 2022 to a total fleet size of 34,000 airplanes.
In the same forecast period, 5,890 planes will be retired from active commercial service and replaced.
During the next 20 years, airlines will take delivery of more than 24,000 airplanes worth US$1.9 trillion in 2002.
China Business Weekly news