27,800 new aircraft needed in next 20 years: Airbus
22 Sep 2011
Airbus's latest market forecast says that the current trend for larger, eco-efficient aircraft will create a demand for 27,800 new aircraft in the next 20 years. The latest Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF) says the global passenger fleet will more than double from today's 15,000 aircraft to 31,500 by 2030.
This will include 27,800 new aircraft deliveries, of which 10,500 will be needed for replacing older, less fuel-efficient aircraft.
The combined value of the over 26,900 passenger aircraft (above 100 seats) and more than 900 new factory built freighters needed by 2030, according to Airbus, will be $3.5 trillion.
The trend for larger aircraft will continue as the aviation sector needs to keep pace with future growth in demand, says the GMF.
The Airbus forecast indicates Revenue Passenger Kilometre (RPK) growth of an average of 4.8 per cent per year, equivalent to traffic more than doubling in the next 20 years.
Geographically, Airbus predicts the Asia-Pacific region to continue to grow to account for approximately 34 per cent of demand by 2030, followed by Europe (22 per cent) and North America (22 per cent).
These figures would make Asia-Pacific the biggest market by share of passenger traffic (33 per cent), followed by Europe (23 per cent) and North America (20 per cent).
Not surprisingly, Airbus sees India (9.8 per cent) and China (7.2 per cent) having the fastest growth rates over the next 20 years in terms of passenger traffic on domestic markets.
