Boeing and Airbus are hiking production of single-aisle commercial jets to unsustainable levels, a report by the Seattle Times said today.
The view is held by many airplane buyers at the International Society of Aircraft Traders’ annual conference held in Phoenix this week, the report said.
But Boeing’s senior vice president of marketing, Mike Bair, told the Seattle Times that the company is confident the market will absorb all the 737s Boeing can produce.
The world just went through the second worst economic downturn in the past century, yet “we motored right through it,” Bair told the Seattle Times. Whatever the next cycle brings, “we’re confident we’ll motor through it” again.
Only a big shock to the world economy could stall the momentum.
“If we go into a real recession, it could be a problem,” Bair said. But the diversity of global demand will sustain the production rates.
Still, Adam Pilarski, an industry analyst with consulting firm Avitas, told those gathered at the conference that the industry is in a bubble, the report said.
The announced production rates of 42 single-aisle jets per month each from Boeing and Airbus by 2014 would mean 5,000 more narrowbody jets built over the next 20 years than the companies’ forecasts say will be needed.
