NEWS FROM IATA AIRLINE INDUSTRY CONFERENCE
Boeing says it will defend the supremacy of its 777
BOEING vowed yesterday to defend its successful 777 wide-body aircraft and signalled it feels under no immediate pressure to respond to a reported challenge from European rival Airbus.
Industry sources revealed on Monday that Airbus planned to place a bigger engine on one variant of its future A350 plane in a bid to compete with Boeing’s 365-seat mini-jumbo.
But Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing’s commercial planes unit, yesterday expressed no concerns over the alleged competition from Airbus: “We have time to analyse the situation and at some point in time we’ll do either a derivative or a new plane to make sure we secure what I’ll call the high ground in the markets we serve,” he said.
Business travel demand hold up, says IATA
TOURISM
BUSINESS travel demand is holding up better than increasingly price-sensitive leisure travel, according to the chief economist for the International Airport Travel Association (IATA).
IATA, which accounts for ninety-three per cent of global air traffic, is forecasting annual growth in revenues this year of around eight per cent to $600bn (£366bn).
Sparking confidence in renewed economic recovery, its chief economist Brian Pearce said yesterday that airlines expect renewed growth in air cargo demand in the second half of this year, as movements of capital goods and high-value components have started to pick up.
Chinese domestic traffic, often regarded as a barometer of the country’s growth, has dipped temporarily as the authorities moved to head off inflation.
But Pearce said that aviation traffic would return to a path off structural growth and that the aviation industry outlook in Asia, excluding Japan, remained positive.