Aircraft
Asia-Pac Growth Portends Opportunities, Challenges for Airbus
Company must adapt to cope with production rate needs.
Airbus sales chief Eric Schulz.
Airbus sales chief Eric Schulz.

While trends show that airline traffic around the globe roughly doubles every 15 years, the Asia-Pacific region will see a three-fold increase, according to Airbus, thereby supporting its sanguine outlook for its widebody product line in particular. Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time as the company’s new head of sales, former Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace president Eric Schulz noted that even though Airbus accounts for just 40 percent of the widebodies in operation in the region, its backlog accounts for 60 percent. In a region expected to generate 46 percent of all widebody demand over the next 20 years, the trends look encouraging for the European manufacturer.