HONG KONG: Boeing Co sealed deals worth $10 billion with two airlines in China, the world's fastest growing market, which is likely to buy more than 2,000 aircraft over the next five years. China expects to order 1,100 new transport aircraft and 1,000 general aviation aircraft, Wang Changshun, vice minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at an Asian aerospace conference Wednesday. Last-minute orders for 200 planes in December pushed EADS subsidiary Airbus past its US rival for a third year. Both aircraft makers are flying high on demand from emerging economies and low-cost airlines and a shift towards less fuel-thirsty jets. Later on Tuesday ILFC, the world's biggest plane leasing company, placed an order for 33 Boeing 737-800s and 100 revamped narrowbodies from the A320neo family. Airbus said Turkish Airlines had placed a firm $1.6 billion order for 13 of its aircraft, ordering 10 A321 passenger planes and three A330-200 freighters. "Boeing and Airbus have a backlog of something like 7,000 planes in total. Right now they are just clearing the backlog of deliveries and so as these new planes come into the industry, that will impact supply and capacity," said Andrew Orchard, an analyst at RBS in Hong Kong. As air travel becomes more popular among China's increasingly wealthy population, Chinese airlines are keen to expand fleets to compete with players such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. China's purchases of aircraft will help drive overall demand in Asia-Pacific, where average annual air traffic growth is expected to grow by 6.8 percent over the next 20 years, higher than the global pace, Boeing said. Asia-Pacific is likely to make up a third of global plane demand over the next 20 years. Air China Ltd said it plans to buy five Boeing 747
