Boeing expects narrow-body jets such as the 737 MAX or the A320neo family from European rival Airbus to dominate deliveries, with 32,420. single aisle aircraft delivered for the next two decades.
“This demand will be driven by low-cost carriers doubling the size of their existing fleets,” Darren Hulst, the firm’s vice president of commercial marketing, said in a meeting with reporters ahead of the release of a report.
The company also expects deliveries through 2042 to include 7,440 wide-body aircraft and 925 freighters. At the same time, he anticipates that about half of new aircraft deliveries will replace older modelswhile the other half will increase airline fleets.
Although Boeing expects the world aircraft fleet to double in the next 20 years, the forecast is lower than that made in 2021, when Russia’s demand for aircraft was still being considered.
As for the passenger trafficthe company slightly raised its growth forecasts, from 3.8% to 4%, and although it considers that the air cargo market is taking a “little breather”, the expected annual growth of 3% in trade over the next two decades will provide a boost for future demand, according to Hulst.
“I think we will see again how resilient air cargo demand is, because it is consistently around 3.5% to 4% growth,” he concluded.