Boeing said on Wednesday it expected the global airliner market to require about 27,200 new planes by 2025 with the most valuable slice of the USD$2.6 trillion total coming from twin-aisle models.
The Boeing 777 twin-aisle plane sharply outsold the rival Airbus A340 last year. That, combined with brisk sales of the 787 due in 2008, has Airbus looking to offer a new twin-aisle plane.
Boeing said while smaller, single-aisle planes would make up 61 percent of the market, twin-aisle models would be the largest segment by value, representing 45 percent of the total.
The two categories, which include planes from 100 to 400 seats, will account for 86 percent of the value of planes sold by 2025, Boeing said.
The Chicago-based company's overall forecast also included 770 freighters, 3,450 regional jets with less than 90 seats, and demand for 990 planes in the largest segment above 400 seats, where Boeing offers the 747 and Airbus makes the even larger A380 superjumbo.
"These new deliveries will result in a world commercial airplanes fleet of nearly 36,000 airplanes by 2025," said Randy Baseler, vice president for marketing at Boeing's commercial planes division.
Boeing and Airbus are expected to announce new orders next week at the Farnborough air show which opens near London on July 17.
Baseler said the planemaker was seeing demand for the freighter version of its newest version of the 747 jumbo, the 747-8, but that many would-be buyers were for the time being placing more focus on smaller models.
"The freighter has a lot of near-term interest," he said.
Asked about plans by rival Airbus to launch a new freighter version of its A330 passenger jet, he said: "I think there's a high likelihood they'll launch it and we'll have to respond."
Boeing plans to set the final design for the passenger version of the new 747, dubbed the Intercontinental, next year, he said, adding that the focus now was on whether to stretch the current version by 3.6 or 5.6 metres.
"I'm 99 percent sure it won't be both," Baseler said.
The bigger length would allow 17 more seats but cost 300 nautical miles in range, he said.
Airbus faces delays in deliveries of its even larger new A380 superjumbo for the next three years.
Baseler said Airbus could face further marketing headaches for the plane because of expected demands that air traffic control leave 10 nautical miles behind an A380 and the next plane flying.
"Airbus sold the A380 as a fix for slot-constrained airports when it could make it significantly worse," he said. "At 10 (nautical miles), that's two slots, not one. So you can put in two 416-seat 747s or one 550-seat A380."
