The world’s passenger fleet will more than double to 48,000 aircraft in 20 years with traffic growing at 4.4 per cent per year, driving a need for 37,390 new passenger and freighter aircraft, according to Airbus’ new Global Market Forecast 2018-2037.
Growth drivers include private consumption increasing 2.4 times in emerging economies, higher disposable incomes and a near doubling of the middle classes globally.
Emerging countries will account for over 60 per cent of economic growth, with trips per capita to multiply 2.5 times for these nations.
Combined with evolving airline business models and continuing liberalisation, the growing scale of air transportation will lead to an increasing resilience to regional slowdowns, Airbus says.
Looking at the four segmentations (from small to extra large), in the small segment typically covering the space where most of today’s single-aisle aircraft compete, there is a forecast future requirement for 28,550 new aircraft, representing more than three-quarters of total expected demand.
In the medium segment, for missions requiring additional capacity and range flexibility, represented by smaller widebodies and longer-range single-aisle aircraft, Airbus forecasts demand for 5,480 passenger and freight aircraft.
And in the large segment where most A350s are present today, there is a need for 1,760 aircraft.
Airbus forecasts demand for 1,590 aircraft over the next 20 years in the extra-large segment, typically reflecting high capacity and long range missions by the largest aircraft types including A350-1000 and A380.
Of the 37,390 new aircraft required, 26,540 are for growth and 10,850 will replace older generation, less fuel-efficient aircraft.
The more than doubling in the world fleet to 48,000 aircraft will result in a need for 540,000 new pilots.
Cozystay Holdings has partnered Singapore-based Share Everything Lab (SEL) to bring blockchain technology to the vacation-rental sharing economy.
The Vancouver-based vacation rental platform, which has been operating since 2015, will be the first adopter of blockchain-based trust protocols currently being developed by SEL.
SEL’s protocols intend to resolve four major pain points said to plague the vacation rental industry: double-booking, security and fraud, review reliability and high fees.
SEL said in a statement: “The success of our growth will come through proper technology and strategic partnerships to slowly evolve from an accommodation-sharing platform to a global sharing-economy website.”
Tujia and Chinese blockchain technology company Tai Cloud are among the existing partners for Cozystay, the first vacation rental platform targeting Chinese vacationers that is headquartered outside of China.
Cozystay, which has 60,000 users, 200,000 listings worldwide, has completed US$4 million in seed funding.