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Ireland will require more than 300 new airplanes worth $22 billion over the next 20 years, according to
the Boeing Company’s annual forecast for the commercial airplane market.
According
to the forecast, single-aisle airplanes will account for 90 percent of all commercial jetliners delivered to the country’s airlines
over the next 20 years. Eight percent will be twin-aisle airplanes, and two percent will be smaller regional
jets.
Boeing projects that European airlines, as a group, will need 7,000 airplanes worth about $530 billion during
the next 20 years. Of those, 66 percent will be single-aisle airplanes, while twin-aisle airplanes will account for 18 percent of all jetliners sold. Fourteen
percent will be regional jets, and 2 percent will be 747 size or larger.
“The percentage of smaller airplanes flown in Europe will increase as airlines meet public demand for more direct routes,” said
Drew Magill, director of Market Analysis for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Magill noted that since 1990, the number of nonstop
flights in Europe has grown at an average rate of about 5 percent and the average airplane size has fallen.
Air traffic within Europe is expected to grow 4.1 percent per year over the next 20 years. Traffic on transatlantic routes between
Europe and North America is projected to increase 4.9 percent annually.
“The whole European region will be an incredibly promising market over the next 20 years,” Magill noted. “We see the rate of
growth for passenger traffic outpacing overall economic growth in the region.”
This growth trend is already under way. Air traffic in Europe is 6.5 percent higher than in 2000 and 12 percent higher than it was
the same time a year ago.
“As we look to the future, we expect competitive intensity to continue to build in the European airline industry,” said
Magill. “Further consolidation of the global network carriers is likely as airlines merge or carve out niches for themselves as regional
specialists. Leisure carriers will adapt with innovative offerings outside of the traditional holiday packages. Low-cost carriers,
which have grown dramatically in the last few years, are likely to double their market share in the next 10 years.”
The complete forecast, known as the Boeing Current Market Outlook, is available on the Boeing web at
www.boeing.com/commercial/cmo
beginning this week.
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