China will need 5,363 new passenger aircrafts and freighters from 2014 to 2033, as the country will have the world’s largest domestic air traffic within 10 years, Airbus SAS forecast on Wednesday.
The new aircraft market in China will be worth $820 billion during the period, the company said. The nation will account for 17 percent of global demand, which will exceed 31,000 new aircraft.
Both domestic and international passenger traffic in China will increase faster than the world average level, the European aircraft manufacturer said in its 2014-33 Global Market Forecast.
The number of people flying in China will exceed that in the United States in 2023, and revenue per passenger kilometer will surpass that of the United States in 2027, according to Airbus.
The average annual growth rate for the domestic market will be 7.1 percent in the next 20 years. Within that larger period, growth will be even faster from 2014 to 2023 at 8.3 percent on average.
Domestic passenger traffic in the Chinese mainland has more than quadrupled over the last 10 years, and it will become the world’s No 1 aviation market within the next 10 years, said John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer for customers.