Air China starts Hong Kong deals

Asia-Pacific is forecast to become the world’s biggest aircraft market over the next two decades

The world’s biggest aircraft manufacturers will be battling for customers as they gather for the Hong Kong airshow.

The exhibition got underway on Tuesday, with leading players looking to tap into the growing Asian market.

Asia-Pacific is forecast to become the largest air transport market over the next two decades.

Passenger numbers in the region are likely to grow by 5.8% a year, according to Airbus.

Airbus estimates that Asia will account for 33% of all aircraft orders in the next two decades, compared with a 26% share between 1990 and 2009.

That translates into 8,560 new planes worth $1.2 trillion (£735bn), Airbus said.

Growth is expected to be powered not only by orders from commercial airlines, but also from an increasing demand for private jets, especially from China.

Mainland China’s economic success has seen the rise of an affluent class that is keen to fly on private and corporate planes.

According to Airbus, Chinese customers accounted for about 25% of its business-jet sales last year.

Francois Chazelle, the company’s vice president of executive and private aviation, said that at present the Middle East has a 50% share of Airbus’s business-jet market.

However, China should get close to that size in “a couple of years”.

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