Boeing forecast that Chinese carriers will need 8,090 new airplanes in the next 20 years, worth nearly $1.3 trillion. It also forecast that approximately $1.6 trillion in services will be necessary to meet airplane passenger traffic demand in China, which is expected to grow by 6 percent annually.
The total demand for aircraft and services represents a 7-percent increase over the 2018 forecast.
Randy Tinseth, vice president of Commercial Marketing for Boeing said that the growth is driven by the expanding middle class, significant investment in infrastructure and advanced technologies in China.
"China is one of the world's most dynamic and fastest-growing markets," he said during a press conference on Tuesday in Beijing.
The report, part of Boeing's annual market outlook, said that similar to previous years, single-aisle airplanes are expected to remain the foundation of China's domestic and regional fleets.
Boeing predicts that China will need 5,960 new single-aisle airplanes, representing 74 percent of total new deliveries. Demand for wide-body airplanes is also high, with 1,780 new wide-body aircraft needed, which will triple the country's current wide-body fleet size. China's rapidly growing e-commerce and express-delivery market will make air cargo a key growth driver, as 230 new freighters and 500 converted freighters will be needed.
China's $1.6-trillion services market will include about $935 billion in ground and cargo operations services, $390 billion in maintenance and engineering services, $200 billion in flight-operations services and $90 billion in marketing, customer service and corporate services, the report said.
China currently has 15 percent of the world's commercial airplane fleet. By 2038, that number is expected to increase to 18 percent, putting China on pace to become the world's largest aviation market within the next decade.
