Boeing Sees World Air Cargo Fleet doubling by 2025

Boeing Projects Air Cargo Fleet to Shift Further Toward Widebody Freighters

(Source: Boeing Co.; issued July 25, 2006)

SEATTLE — The global air cargo market will continue its growth patterns of the past few years, with strong 20-year growth, according to the Current Market Outlook (CMO) 2006 from the Boeing Company. This pattern will lead to a doubling of the world freighter fleet from 1,789 to 3,563 airplanes, both numbers slightly up from the previous forecast.

This growth, accounting for expected airplane retirements of 1,209 airplanes, will result in a total of 2,983 airplanes added to the freighter fleet by 2025, according to the annual CMO, which was released earlier this month prior to the Farnborough Air Show.

“Relatively stable total fleet numbers over the past five years are a bit misleading since strong deliveries have been offset by a roughly equal number of retirements,” said Jim Edgar, regional director, Cargo Marketing for Asia. “Rising fuel prices apply replacement pressure on older inefficient fleets, contributing to unprecedented freighter interest while we experience minimal negative impact upon traffic levels.”

Most of these additions — nearly 62 percent — will be in the widebody category (medium widebody plus large freighters). Widebody freighters with a capacity of 40 tons or more will increase in share from 50 percent of the current fleet to 64 percent of the 2025 fleet. Consequently, there will be an increase in overall average freighter airplane payload. These findings are consistent with prior years’ forecasts.

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The Current Market Outlook is available on the company’s Web site. Boeing will issue a more detailed forecast — World Air Cargo Forecast 2006/2007 — at the 2006 International Air Cargo Forum and Exposition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in September.

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