Boeing Co. expects more plane orders from Southeast Asian carriers this year as the region’s economic growth spurs demand.
“A lot of these airlines” will place orders, Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of Boeing’s Asia Pacific and India sales, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Juliette Saly at the Singapore Airshow Monday.
Carriers in Asia have ordered hundreds of planes in recent years as a rising middle class with enough disposable income travels by air for the first time. Asia Pacific will need 16,050 new airplanes valued at $2.5 trillion by 2036, as economic growth in the region boosts the middle-class population. That’s 39 percent of the global estimate of 41,030 aircraft, according to Boeing’s outlook.
Keskar said infrastructure is the number one risk to demand in Southeast Asia. Airlines also have to contend with rising oil prices and a ticket price war.
Still, the industry is in a “comfort zone” where jet fuel prices are concerned, Keskar said. Boeing expects prices to be rangebound at about $70 and that the market will be able to bear it as load factors rise.
