Airbus Sees Demand for 22,700 Jetliners by 2025
07 December 2006 6:55pm
Rapid growth in China and India have boosted Airbus’s long-term outlook for airliner demand, the planemaker said on Wednesday, forecasting a need for 22,700 new airliners by 2025 worth about $2.6 trillion.Its latest forecast marked an increase of 5,400 aircraft over its prediction in December 2004, including a very slight increase in expected demand for very large aircraft such as the Airbus A380 super jumbo.Airbus now sees demand for 1,260 very large passenger planes versus its former forecast of 1,250, undeterred by sales which have stumbled in the wake of delays that have pushed back deliveries of the A380 by about two years.The plane maker’s senior salesman, Chief Operating Officer for Customers John Leahy, said despite customer FedEx Express canceling an order for 10 of the $300 million double-deckers, other carriers were not expected to follow.But developing countries including China, India, countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, are also seen as key drivers. The Asia-Pacific for the A380 in particular is important, with 56 percent of world deliveries of the plane seen going to carriers there.
