Boeing CEO Calhoun bullish on industry demand for airplanes

Industrywide demand for airplanes is strong and will continue to improve as airlines work to replace aging fleets, buy more efficient models and continue to see passenger growth, Boeing CE Dave Calhoun said on Monday. "Demand for airplanes is as robust as I've ever seen it. I think it will get more robust," Calhoun told Reuters and another news outlet on the sidelines of an event at Boeing's new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The demand for airplanes "is more than a bubble," he added. Calhoun described the decision to move the headquarters to Arlington from Chicago, announced last month, as "not a momentary thing. It wasn't an auction." Calhoun, speaking to reporters after an event Monday to herald the HQ announcement, said Boeing did not consider relocating its headquarters back to Seattle, where it had been based until its move to Chicago in 2001. "It was a simple consolidation of footprints," he said. Boeing, a major US defense contractor, also plans to develop a research and technology hub in the Arlington area, home to the Pentagon and across the Potomac River from the US capital. "Our biggest customer in the world is right across the way -- the Pentagon is the biggest in the world," Calhoun said. "This is just a smart spot." Boeing's new headquarters is in an Arlington office it has had since 2014 where it has significant unused space, and which sits just blocks from Amazon.com's second headquarters, known as HQ2, which is under construction. "This innovation campus really got jelled when Amazon came here," Calhoun said. The Chicago headquarters - a 36-floor, $200m riverfront skyscraper - has been at the crossroads of a cost-cutting campaign for Boeing, which has shed real estate, including its commercial airplane headquarters in Seattle.<br/>