Abu Dhabi Boeing will deliver more than 20 aircraft this year to Emirates, Etihad Airways and flydubai, said Jeff Johnson, president of Boeing Middle East.
"Etihad will be our first UAE 787 Dreamliner customer and they'll take delivery in 2014," Johnson said. "What's exciting about Etihad is that they'll be the biggest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner," he said.
Boeing currently has over 140 B787 Dreamliners on order in the Middle East.
"If you look at the current market outlook which we roll out twice a year, the Americas is the first largest customer base, China will be second and the UAE will be the third largest in the world," Johnson said. "For the Middle East, over the next 20 years, we're talking over 2,500 airplanes for about $450 billion (Dh1.65 trillion); that's our estimate for the market."
When you look at the $4 trillion global market, the UAE is the third largest in that group, so it's very large. You can see that with the large airlines like Emirates and Etihad," he said.
Johnson said that the delivery of the B777 aircraft has brought new capabilities to the market. "When you look at what the 777 brings to Emirates airline, they can fly anywhere in the world non-stop loaded with that airplane… so they're flying down to Houston, to LA, to Asia," he said.
