Boeing eyes 700-billion-dollar North American plane market

NEW YORK, Sept 2, 2010 (AFP) - Aircraft sales in North America will reach 700 billion dollars over the next 20 years as airlines modernize their fleets, aerospace giant Boeing said on Thursday.

The Chicago-based plane maker forecast that air carriers in Canada and the United States will take delivery of some 7,200 new airplanes by 2029.

The deliveries "will be driven largely by the need to retire older, less fuel-efficient single-aisle airplanes and regional jets, as airlines replace them with new-generation, more fuel-efficient models," it said in a statement.

Taking retirements of airplanes into account, the North America fleet will grow from 6,590 airplanes today to about 9,000 airplanes by 2029, it said.

Boeing forecast that nearly three-quarters of all new deliveries will be single-aisle airplanes as "the fast-paced lifestyles in Canada and the US require rapid, frequent and reliable coast-to-coast and interregional transportation."

The company forecast a demand for 1,180 airplanes of its two-aisle 737 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft over the next 20 years, as small and medium size planes are expected to catch 19 percent of the North America fleet.

It, however, expected orders for its flagship 747 model and larger planes to reach a mere 40 units, or one percent of total investment.

Boeing, like its European rival Airbus, has focused its efforts in recent years on developing fuel-efficient aircraft, led by the 787 Dreamliner.


by Lachlan Carmichael
(c) 2010 AFP