News / E-commerce boom means demand for narrowbody freighters threatens to outstrip supply

Feedstock for narrowbody freighter conversions could run short by 2018, thanks to demand from China’s e-commerce and express delivery markets.

“Looking at the overall global market for freighters, and narrowing down into the single-aisle sector, we see demand as about 1,000 airplanes over the next 20 years,” Boeing vice-president Kurt Kraft told last week’s Cargo Facts Asia conference in Hong Kong.

“We believe 400 of those are going to China. Another 250 will go into the US market, with the reminder going into ...