BOC Aviation Orders Five Airbus Freighters to Lease

BOC Aviation, Bank of China Ltd.'s aircraft-leasing unit, ordered five Airbus SAS A330-200 cargo planes, valued at about $877 million in list prices, as rising global trade boosts demand for air-freight capacity.
The freighters, scheduled for delivery between 2012 and 2013, are the first that BOC Aviation has bought directly from a manufacturer, the Singapore-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The freighter version of the A330-200 has an average price of $175.4 million apiece.
BOC Aviation aims to build a fleet of about 20 freighters in five years, to tap demand in Asia to move mobile phones and computer equipment by air. Air-cargo traffic worldwide will likely grow 6.1 percent a year until 2025, according to Boeing Co., the world's second-largest maker of airplanes after Airbus.
Air freight demand is increasing from countries such as China, where there are more than 50 cities each with more than a million people, and from India, a nation that has at least 30 cities with a similar population, BOC Aviation Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin said in a telephone interview today. China and India are the world's two-most populous countries and the fastest-growing major economies.
22/02/08 Chan Sue Ling/Bloomberg

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Categories: Cargo Feb 2008, Foreign Feb 2008