Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Boeing’s projection for more than 35,000 new airplanes over the next 20 years suggests a doubling of the size of today’s airliner fleet and a continuing trend in which increases in airline traffic outpace economic growth. The outlook appears to reflect a growing confidence in the fidelity of the positive market indicators the company cited in its 2012 forecast, prompting the company to increase its projection for total airplanes by more than 1,000 units and value by some 7 percent. Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth gave a presentation on the forecast last Tuesday in Paris.


Demand trends showing continuing vigorous growth in emerging and low-fare markets has convinced Boeing (Chalet A324) to raise its projection for the single-aisle market by 1,430 airplanes in this year’s outlook, accounting for more than the entire difference between this year’s outlook and last year’s report. Boeing now sees the segment covering 90- to 230 seats generating a demand over 20 years for 24,670 airplanes worth $2.29 trillion. That value actually represents a disproportionate increase over Boeing’s unit projections because, as Tinseth explained, a trend toward capacity “upgauging” will result in the sale of somewhat larger, more expensive airplanes in the narrowbody category.


In the widebody segment, which Boeing for the first time divided into three categories, the company’s outlook moderated somewhat, particularly compared with its forecast for airplanes in the size category of its 737 Max. Last year Boeing saw total demand for what it then called twin-aisle and large airliners for 8,740 units; this year’s projection in the equivalent category, now classified as small, medium-size and large widebodies, calls for a lower demand of 8,590 airplanes, albeit at a slightly higher value. “The twin-aisle market is relatively flat because that’s where we’re going to see, again, additional upgauging,” said Tinseth. “The big segment–the 400-seat [category]–is down about 4 percent. And that is just a reflection of what we’ve seen over the last decade and really where we see demand for big, big airplanes.”


Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region still accounts more than a third of the 20-year demand forecast by Boeing. Again, this year’s forecast calls for nearly as much demand in the Asia-Pacific region as from Europe and North America combined.


Boeing also appears even more bullish than ever on Latin America and the Middle East, according to the forecast. In 2012, Boeing projected a 20-year demand for 2,510 and 2,370 airplanes for those markets, respectively. This year’s forecast shows demand for 2,900 and 2,610 airplanes in those respective regions.

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