BANGKOK: Boeing Co expects Southeast Asian airlines to require more than 2,500 new airplanes worth $370 billion over the next 20 years to meet air traffic growth and renew ageing fleets, an executive said on Tuesday.
The plane maker is bullish on air traffic in Southeast Asia, expecting it to grow 6.9 percent a year over the next 20 years, with annual economic growth of 4.3 percent.
Confirming comments made by the company overnight, Randy Tinseth, vice-president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Boeing was on track to deliver its long-delayed 787 Dreamliner as scheduled in the third quarter of this year despite the earthquake in Japan.
"We are working with suppliers in Japan. I believe their facilities have been left intact ... We believe that we have all the parts that we need for the first delivery," Tinseth told Reuters during a trip to Bangkok.
The 787 aircraft is 35 percent made by Japanese manufacturers.
Boeing has no plans to evacuate any of its roughly 200 employees in Japan due to radiation fears caused by nuclear power plant explosions.
"We are monitoring it carefully. Right now, we have no evidence to indicate that there is a risk or a need to mobilise to evacuate employees," said Miles Kotay, director of Boeing Commercial Airplanes International Communications.
Boeing is the world's second-largest commercial plane maker, behind Europe's Airbus.
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