Boost for plane-makers with sales of business jets expected to lift off
SALES of business jets are expected reach $18.4bn this year, up about eight per cent from last year, according to a forecast by Honeywell Aerospace.
The figures were seen as a sign of further economic strengthening despite some pockets of weakness notably in Asia. The forecast expects continued recovery from the economic low of 2009, and for growing demand for bigger jets with longer range, including those made by Bombardier and Gulfstream, a unit of General Dynamics.
The higher cost of the bigger jets will keep overall spending moving higher even as the actual number of jets sold is expected to be down about one per cent compared with last year because of problems in the supply chain that hampered manufacturing, Honeywell said. The survey forecast up to 9,250 new business jets will be delivered through 2023, worth more than $250bn.
Asian buyers are expected to buy jets equivalent to 24 per cent of their fleet in the next five years, down from an expected 34 per cent in last year’s survey, as optimism has tempered.