Singapore Airshow 2018: Asia-Pacific will need 2,050 planes in 60 to 150-seat segment over next 2 decades, says Bombardier

BY 2036, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to take delivery of some 2,050 aircraft in the 60 to 150-seat segment, or 16 per cent of a worldwide market for 12,550 aircraft valued at US$820 billion, Bombardier projects.

According to the Canadian-based manufacturer of planes and trains, deliveries in the region - defined as Asia without Greater China - should consist of 1,050 large regional aircraft (50 to 100 seats), and 1,000 small single-aisle aircraft (100 to 150 seats) over the next two decades.

Francois Cognard, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft's vice-president of sales, Asia-Pacific said: "Asia-Pacific is the home of the fastest growing economies. Strong GDP growth and a booming middle class should drive passenger traffic numbers to triple in the next 20 years."

Furthermore, demand for domestic and regional connectivity means that the fastest traffic growth in the region will come from small and medium sized cities with challenging airports, said Bombardier.

It adds that within the region, over 60 per cent of all routes flown today have demand for less than 150 passengers per day; and predicts that intra-regional traffic will account for 80 per cent of all Asia-Pacific demand by 2036, with the majority of passengers taking short haul flights of under 925 km.

To fill an emerging 100 to 150-seat segment between large regional jets and large single-aisle aircraft, Bombardier developed its new C Series aircraft. The launch customer for the C Series in Asia was Korean Air, which ordered 10 CS300 with 10 options. Korean Air has taken delivery of two CS300 aircraft to date, and had its first revenue flight from Seoul to Ulsan on Jan 20, 2018.

Bombardier's latest forecast comes after Airbus predicted that the Asia-Pacific region will need some 14,450 new planes valued at US$2.3 trillion over the next two decades, as passenger traffic in the region is set to triple to make it the world's largest aviation market.

With passenger traffic in the region slated to expand at 5.6 per cent annually, outstripping the global average of 4.4 per cent, Airbus foresees that the Asia-Pacific fleet will grow from 6,100 planes today to nearly 17,000 in twenty years.

The new orders from the region will account for as much as 40 per cent of global demand. Of the 14,450 planes, Airbus estimates that 9,800 will be in the single aisle category, while there will be demand for 4,000 widebodies and 650 very large aircraft.