China to buy $1tn worth of planes over next 20 years: Boeing
Boeing forecasts that Chinese airlines will buy 6,810 planes worth $1.025tn over the next two decades as part of their expansion plans to cater for the country's booming domestic and overseas tourist industry. This latest estimate is 7.6% higher than what was predicted last year. “The continuing expansion of China’s middle class, coupled with new visa policies and a wide range of widebody airplanes… gives us every reason to expect a very bright future for China’s long-haul market,” says Boeing's Randy Tinseth, adding that "as China transitions to a more consumer-based economy, aviation will play a key role in its economic development." Boeing also predicts that 39,620 new airplanes valued at $5.9tn will be delivered globally over the next 20 years.

Chinese airlines are likely to purchase 6,810 planes worth $1.025 trillion in the next 20 years as they expand fleets to cater to robust growth in domestic and overseas tourism, Boeing forecast on Tuesday.

The latest estimate of 6,810 planes is 7.6 percent higher than the 6,330 aircraft predicted last year.

"The continuing expansion of China's middle class, coupled with new visa policies and a wide range of widebody airplanes... gives us every reason to expect a very bright future for China's long-haul market," Randy Tinseth, Boeing Commercial Airplanes' vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

He also said that he expects passenger traffic to grow 6.4 percent in China annually over the next 20 years.

Boeing has stayed bullish on China even as other U.S. companies have expressed concern over the country's slower economic growth. A senior Boeing executive said in August that the plane maker was not seeing any softness in demand in China.