Boeing says greater Asia region has biggest potential for long-term growth

波音看好表示亞洲長期增長潛力最大

Company predicts global air travel to fully rebound from pandemic by 2024 or 2025

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Boeing said on Monday (Aug. 22) it views the greater Asia region before and after the pandemic as having the greatest potential for long-term growth and will remain an important focus for the company going forward.

Thomas Sanderson, commercial planes product marketing director for Boeing, made the comments from Seattle while speaking with Taiwanese media on Monday during an online press briefing. As for specific Taiwan market forecast, Sanderson said Boeing would make regional forecasts available in October.

When asked by Taiwan News if Boeing expected continued interruptions to air travel in the region due to increased Chinese military drills, Sanderson said it would be inappropriate for the company to speculate on the future actions of the People’s Liberation Army, but that it is always of vital importance for Boeing to work with all the stakeholders in every country that it operates and to always maintain full transparency and dialogue with every regulator it needs to.

Sanderson added that as COVID restrictions are relaxed in-country and then between countries, Boeing is expecting to see increasing demand for and supply of air travel. He said the company has seen that pattern evolve in every region of the world that has lifted pandemic restrictions, and that Boeing expects the same for the greater Asia region.

He also said that the company is predicting global air travel to fully rebound from the pandemic by 2024 or 2025. Sanderson noted that some regions that have already dialed back their COVID restrictions are seeing strong demand for air travel.

When asked by Taiwan News if Boeing has experienced supply chain issues similar to the chip crunch that has plagued the auto industry over the past year, Sanderson said that while the company’s extended global supply chain is not immune to disruption, the rate of production and the rate of technology change with respect to semiconductors is not as rapid in aerospace as in automotive, so it has been less disruptive.

He stressed that supply chain stability has always been a focus for the company, but that Boeing continues to mitigate risk particularly in engines, raw materials, and semiconductors to protect their ability to consistently deliver and to provide stability for future production rate increases.

Boeing resumed deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners on Aug. 10 after being put on hold for most of the past two years as regulators and the company reviewed a series of manufacturing flaws, according the CNBC. Sanderson said the 787 Dreamliner lineup still controls a lion’s share of the wide-body aircraft sector with a 59% market share compared to rival Airbus and its 41%.