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Charlotte Bailey

With 60% of all long-haul services to Southeast Asia operated by a widebody, Boeing is confident that its protracted 777X program—now targeting type certification in the second half of this year—will help meet a demand that continues to grow in the region.
Singapore operates more flights per square kilometer than any country, explained Darren Hulst, v-p of commercial marketing at Boeing. With Asia being the largest contributor to the 5.5% passenger growth seen worldwide last year, this complements a 25-year growth period for the region he described as “dynamic.”
Indeed, within the widebody market, the need for approximately 910 new aircraft over the next 25 years (19% of total aircraft demand) coincides with an increase in the number of Southeast Asian city-pairs served by the 787. In 2012, this stood at two, rising to 518 in 2025. Singapore-based customers alone have more than 180 Boeing aircraft on order to support fleet modernization.
The 777X will play an important role in a region that, despite being the single largest contributor to a projected global 8% rise year-on-year in passenger traffic, is a market Hulst believes has still “probably undergrown in the last few years due to the challenges coming out of the pandemic.” However, ongoing certification delays have also impacted fleet planning.
“In the near term, [the ongoing 777X certification delay] forces airlines to make some adjustments to either the retirement date of the airplanes they have in their fleet, or to their expansion or replacement plans, maybe some investment in the near term in terms of midlife modifications to interiors,” explained Hulst.
Although he caveated that it is up to the FAA “in terms of the ultimate timing for certification,” Boeing nevertheless expects this to be awarded in the second half of this year. However, the widebody’s entry into service could be pushed to 2027. “It’s really up to our customers when they take delivery of the aircraft, and the processes and steps they need to go through between certification and ultimately revenue service for that aircraft,” he said.
Conversely, regional narrowbody fleet growth has been softer, with Southeast Asian post-pandemic recovery of available seat-kilometers notably lagging the overall Asian total. However, with the region's narrowbody fleet the oldest on the market, retirement requirements are predicted to grow by the mid-2030s, starting at a few dozen before the end of the decade and rising to a few hundred between 2030 and 2035. Indicative of regional narrowbody demand, Boeing has garnered more than 2,200 net orders for 737 Maxs from airlines in the broader APAC market.

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