Boeing: China to buy planes worth $1.2trillion over 20 years

BEIJING, China - Increasing its estimate for the period to 2037, Boeing Co said on Tuesday that it is expecting Chinese airlines to buy 7,690 new planes worth $1.2 trillion over the next two decades.

The planemaker said that Chinese carriers will buy thousands of new planes to keep pace with booming consumer and business demand for air travel.

Raising its previous estimate made last year, Boeing said on Tuesday that its latest prediction for the period to 2037 is 6.2 percent higher than its previous prediction of 7,240 planes until 2036.

In an official statement, Randy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ vice president of marketing said, “The growth in China can be attributed to the country’s growing middle class, which has more than tripled in the last 10 years and is expected to double again in the next 10."

Further, Boeing has predicted that China - which currently accounts for 15 percent - will account for 18 percent of the world’s commercial airplane fleet by 2037.

The U.S. firm has further forecast that the country will need over $1.5 trillion in commercial services to support its fleet.

Large planemakers, including Boeing and its rival Airbus have been trying to increase market share in the world's fastest growing aviation market - China. 

Both the companies have already opened assembly plants in the country.

So far, Boeing has not felt a major impact from the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.