Airbus upbeat about plane demand

Airbus' John Leahy: "We're being not optimistic, but pessimistic"

The European planemaker Airbus has raised its forecast for new aircraft demand over the next 20 years.

It predicted global demand for 25,000 new aircraft across the industry between 2009 and 2029, up from the 24,262 it forecast for 2007 to 2027.

It also said that passenger numbers would fall by 2% this year but rise 4.6% next year.

Its rival Boeing predicted in June that 29,000 new planes would be ordered between 2009 and 2029.

Airbus said that demand for aircraft would be resilient to economic upturns and downturns.

'Big leap'

"Air transportation is a growth industry and an essential ingredient in the world economy," said John Leahy from Airbus.

He added that the growth of low-cost airlines would be a factor in future growth.

Speaking after the Airbus briefing, Tim Coombs from the consultancy Aviation Economics said "making 20-year forecasts about anything is a big leap".

"I found it slightly surprising that the figure was up on last year given that we are in a recession," he added.

"We also don't know how the industry is going to be treated in terms of emissions."