Aircraft conversions to boost Boeing's services activity in Asia
Romain Guillot
 le 17/10/2019 , Maintenance aéronautique, Compagnies cargo
Boeing Global Services (BGS) took advantage of the MRO Asia-Pacific event which was held in Singapore at the end of September to look over the perspectives available to the American aircraft manufacturer's dedicated services division for the region.
Using Boeing's latest CMO (Commercial Market Outlook) figures, Tonya DelMaestro, Chief Marketing Officer, Commercial Services at BGS, stated that the Asia-Pacific region would drive the growth in services related to commercial aviation to 5.1% per year, reaching a total of 3480 billion dollars over 20 years, accounting for 38% of worldwide demand in value and nearly twice the share of North America over the period. Of course, these are all service-related activities, meaning that ground and flight ops, marketing and planning are also taken into account as well as just MRO activities.
Tonya DelMaestro also stated that of the some 1040 cargo aircraft expected worlwide within the next 20 years, 340 will be intended for the Asia-Pacific region with a total value of 105 billion dollars. She specified that two thirds of these new aircraft will be converted aircraft, in particular 737-800BCFs and 767-300BCFs. The American aircraft manufacturer still proposes three types of new full freighter aircraft in its catalogue, the 747-8F, the 777F and the 767F.
She also noted that BGS is particularly well-positioned in the region with two Joint Ventures which can convert its aircraft. The first is SASCO (Boeing Asia Pacific Aviation Services), its subsidiary with SIAEC in Changi for the 767 programme and the second is BSAS (Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services), its joint enterprise with China Eastern and the Shanghai Airport Authority which is able to convert 737-800s.
Tonya DelMaestro also explained that the main difficulty the region's operators are currently encountering is being able to determine the right time to start a conversion project, when airlines still need more capacity.
Remember that the CEO of Boeing Dennis Muilenburg is planning to triple the aircraft manufacturer's services activities within 10 years, with an objective of 50 billion dollars in turnover by 2027, compared with the 17 billion dollars generated last year.
|
