Airbus projects £1.9trn demand for planes

Some 25,000 commercial aircraft with a total value of $3.1 trillion (£1.9 trillion) will be delivered over the next two decades as emerging economies, the need for more ecologically-efficient planes and growing low-cost carriers boost demand, Airbus said yesterday.

Although revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) – the airline industry's key income measure – is set to drop by 2 per cent this year, it is expected to rise by 4.6 per cent in 2010 and double over the next 15 years, according to Airbus estimates. The result will be $2.9 trillion-worth of spending on new passenger aircraft as carriers upgrade aging fleets and buy bigger planes. The strongest demand will come from Asia-Pacific, boosted by massive growth in China and India.

On the cargo side, Airbus is forecasting that freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) will rise by 5.2 per cent annually, creating demand for nearly 3,500 new cargo planes.