Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft owned by American Airlines and United Airlines sit parked at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, USA, in July 2019. File photo: IC

 Boeing in its new forecast on Wednesday projected demand for 2,610 new airplanes in Latin America and the Caribbean over the next two decades.

The 20-year market for commercial aircraft within the region is valued at $365 billion, according to Boeing's 2020 Commercial Market Outlook (CMO), an annual forecast of demand for commercial airplanes and services and Boeing's view of near-, medium- and long-term market dynamics.

The forecast reflects the near-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic along with the long-term fundamentals for air travel. Single-aisle commercial models will comprise 90 percent of this airplane demand, reflecting the expansion of affordable travel opportunities across and within the region, the company said.

"While the aviation industry across Latin America and the Caribbean has been hard hit by the pandemic, fundamental growth drivers in the region remain strong," said Ricardo Cavero, Boeing vice president of sales for Latin America and the Caribbean. "South America, in particular, has considerable untapped market potential for air travel expansion driven by economic expansion and a large geographic area best served by air travel."

Up to 2039, passenger traffic across the region is projected to grow 5.1 percent annually, with the airplane fleet expanding 3.5 percent annually as airlines improve utilization and manage higher load factors. Boeing projects that the number of people traveling within South America will overtake the traffic flows between Central and North America during the forecast period.

According to Boeing, over the 20-year forecast period, the region will demand more than 2,360 new single-aisle airplanes valued at $290 billion. Single-aisle airplanes, such as the 737 family, will continue to be the main driver of capacity growth.

The company also projected the demand for 220 widebody passenger airplanes and 20 purpose-built widebody freighters, representing a total delivery value of 75 billion dollars, which is a 12 percent reduction from the prior year's forecast, a revision resulting from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globally, Boeing projected the need for 43,110 new commercial airplanes and the demand for aftermarket services to be equivalent to 9 trillion U.S. dollars over the next two decades. China is poised to become the largest passenger market in the next few years. Chinese airlines will require nearly 8,420 new passenger airplane deliveries over the next 20 years, the largest share of any country in the world.

Worldwide air cargo traffic is projected to grow at an annual rate of 4 percent over 20 years due to expected solid industrial production and world trade.