China needs to order hundreds more planes, Avolon CEO says

China, which needs $1t worth of aircraft over the next 20 years, has under-ordered by some 750 planes over the next decade, the chief executive officer of lessor Avolon Holdings said, suggesting more orders lie ahead for Boeing and Airbus. "The Chinese market is driven by demographics," Domhnal Slattery said Monday. "Quite simply, if we look at Asia there’s 600m to 700m in the middle class. That’s going to grow in the next 20 years to 2.6b people. That’s 400% growth." China’s Bohai Leasing completed its $7.6b acquisition of the Avolon over the weekend, paving the way for the formation of the world’s fourth-largest air lessor by asset value. With Boeing and Airbus projecting China to become the world’s largest air travel market over the next 20 years, plane-leasing companies in China have been mentioned as parties to more than $16b worth of mergers and acquisitions since last year. Rapid growth of air travel in Asia is lifting orders for Boeing and Airbus, with China forecast to soon surpass the US as the world’s largest plane market. <br/>