Boeing foresees steady growth in Southeast Asian aviation market

Boeing Commercial Airplane’s vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth talking about the company's development plan in Vietnam

Boeing Commercial Airplane’s vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth revealed that the global fleet is shifting from larger wide-body airplanes to smaller, more efficient wide-body variants.

“With growing volatility in fuel prices, over the past several years, we have seen large four-engined airplanes like the 747 and A380 being pushed out of the market,” Tinseth said. “In fact, nearly 30 years ago, large wide-body airplanes made up 30 per cent of the global fleet. Today, this has shrunk to just 10 per cent, and smaller, more fuel efficient wide-body airplanes like the 787 continue to increase pressure.”

In addition, the smaller, long-range wide-body airplanes like the 777 and 787 have created tremendous growth for airlines in the region.

“Today’s 777 and 787 airplanes are the market leaders in the largest long-haul growth market globally—providing 80 per cent of Transpacific capacity,” said Tinseth. “In fact, these two airplanes are responsible for opening 30 of the newest long-haul routes over the past two years. This is a clear indication that carriers are moving away from operating large wide-body airplanes like the 747 and A380 and are gearing towards operating smaller, more efficient wide-body airplanes that enable airlines to increase frequencies on direct non-stop services to newer markets worldwide,” added Tinseth.

According to Boeing, approximately 65 per cent of the future widebody airplane demand in Southeast Asia will be for the smaller variety, such as the 787 Dreamliner, while 35 per cent will be for medium-sized wide-body airplanes such as the 787-10 and 777 airplanes. Since its launch in 2011, the 787 Dreamliner has enabled airlines to open up more than 180 new markets worldwide.

“Widebody airplanes play an important role in Vietnam’s commercial air travel market and this trend will continue as Vietnam Air looks to bolster its world-class fleet with newer versions of the 787 in the near future,” stated Tinseth.

Globally, Boeing projects airlines to invest $2.8 trillion for 9,130 new wide-body airplanes to be delivered over the next 20 years.