TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan aviation market will continue to grow in 2023, with travel throughout Asia leading the way, according to a Boeing executive on Friday (Feb. 10).

Speaking at press conference in Taipei, Managing Director of Marketing David Schulte said flights to and from Taiwan have continued to grow steadily over the past couple of years and have reached 75% of pre-pandemic levels. Schulte said that looking at schedules for the rest of the year, Taiwanese airlines are adding a lot of growth to the market.

He noted a 340% jump in flights from Taiwan to the rest of Asia this year, a 240% growth in flights to North America, and a 250% growth in flights to Europe. With Beijing lifting its border restrictions, Boeing sees air traffic between Taiwan and China recovering to 31% of pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, global air travel has recovered to 75% compared to 2019 levels, with North America leading the way at 92%, followed by 90% in Latin America, 89% in the Middle East, and 87% in Europe, while Asia and Oceania are at 57%. For the Asia-Pacific region, Schulte said the company expects air traffic to recover to 2019 levels in 2024/2025.

Boeing said Northeast Asia (Taiwan, Japan, and S. Korea) will need 1,345 new airplanes by 2041, with 55% of these planes being single-aisle and 41% being widebody aircraft. Schulte pointed out that most of these aircraft deliveries will be for replacements.

Throughout the pandemic, Boeing realized the need for dedicated freighters, especially for the Northeast Asia region, Schulte said. As the world exits the pandemic, Boeing still sees the need for dedicated freighters, but as passenger traffic recovers there will be more lower-hold belly capacity returning to the cargo market.

Over the next 20 years, Boeing said the Asia Pacific region will account for 38% of freighter deliveries, followed by North America at 32%, Europe at 16%, and the Middle East and Africa at 9%.

Back in 2018, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) had originally been tapped to provide chips to Flex Logic that were to be used by Boeing. However, it ended up losing the deal to Global Foundries over security concerns and tensions between the U.S. and China, according to EE Times.

When asked by Taiwan News if Boeing would look to source chips from TSMC’s upcoming Phoenix fabs, the company said it could not say for sure now. It would continue to evaluate its suppliers to stabilize the supply chain.

Schulte wrapped up by saying that while Asia lags global trends in air travel recovery, it expects the market to continue to rebound throughout 2023.