Boeing sees aircraft order book shrinking on low global demand

US aerospace giant Boeing said yesterday it expects new orders for commercial aircraft this year to fall short of deliveries and no increase in demand until 2012.

The planemaker expects to deliver 460 to 465 aircraft in 2010 against 481 last year, a large number of which would be from the short-haul 737 series, Randy Tinseth, Vice-President of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow, which kicked off yesterday.

A drop in global passenger demand led Boeing and rival Airbus to face their worst annual order tally last year in at least 15 years as struggling airlines cancelled or deferred deliveries of almost as many planes as they were buying.

"Clearly the business and environment has affected our production but this substantial backlog helped us maintain a relatively robust rate during this downturn," said Tinseth. "Generally we see 2010 as the year of economic recovery and 2011 a year where airlines recover to profitability and as a result of that (we see) an increase in demand for airplanes in 2012."

He also said the company expects to see fewer deferrals and cancellations in 2010, compared to 2009 when Boeing had about 270 airplane orders being deferred and around 120 cancelled.

Tinseth reaffirmed that Boeing plans to deliver the first of its repeatedly delayed 787 Dreamliners to All Nippon Airways in the fourth quarter of 2010. He said the plane's fly test programme was on track.

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