Boeing expects to sell more planes to China

Boeing lifted its forecast for aircraft demand in China in the next two decades, saying a rising middle class would spur leisure and business travel.

The planemaker projects demand in China for 6,810 aircraft valued at $1.025 trillion, making the nation the first trillion-dollar aviation market in its forecast, Boeing said in a statement distributed in Beijing Tuesday.

The aircraft maker last year predicted China would need 6,330 new planes worth $950 billion in the next two decades.

In China, "we continue to see very strong passenger traffic growth. We've seen a very strong consumer segment of the market," Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said at a briefing in Beijing. "The good news for aviation is that is the segment of the economy that services the aircraft market."

Carriers across Asia are expanding their fleets as economic growth makes air travel affordable to more people, lifting orders for Boeing and Airbus Group SE. The more-optimistic outlook from Boeing, which last year announced a plan to build an aircraft-completion center in China, comes after it delivered a record number of planes to China in 2015.