May 10 - US plane maker, Boeing, hopes that it will do great business with the Middle East in the next 20 years and will sell commercial airplanes worth Dh550.94 billion to airlines here, said Randy Tinseth, Vice-President Marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Boeing has a market share of 40 per cent in the region at the moment and hopes to increase by 10 per cent in the next 20 years. "From around 800 planes at present, the Middle East will require 1,800 planes 20 years from now, with airlines in the region requiring over 1,700 aircraft valued at $300bn. Our goal is to achieve 50 per cent market share and we have a lot of opportunities after we have had success with regional aviation firms," he said.
Boeing’s main competitor in the region is Airbus that has a pretty good position in the region. The plane maker hopes to beat Airbus by the new fleet of planes that will be launched next year. While the company has seen order cancellations from around the world, including the Middle East, Tinseth said that the future looks promising. "Last year things started to turn around and here in the Middle East the market continued to grow even in the downturn. Economy has grown, airlines have taken deliveries of aircraft and we see double-digit growth in passengers being carried," he added.
Meanwhile, Boeing has a backlog of 261 airplanes from MENA, and the UAE would be its most important market in this regard. "Globally, the UAE is ranked fourth, after USA, China and Germany," said Tinseth.