Airlines and freight companies will need about 27,200 new civil aircraft in the next 20 years, doubling the world fleet by 2025, Boeing said in its Current Market Outlook for 2006.

The Chicago-based manufacturer said the new jets would be needed to deal with an estimated 4.9 percent annual increase in passenger traffic and a 6.1 percent rise in air cargo.

Boeing said its air travel growth forecast was similar to one issued by Airbus, which is owned by the European aerospace group EADS and BAE Systems of Britain.

But Boeing said it believed the Toulouse-based Airbus, which has been struggling with production problems and a management upheaval, was mistaken in its focus on bigger aircraft to accommodate the expansion.

While Airbus has developed the 555-seater A380 super jumbo jet to move large numbers of travellers between hubs and onto connecting services, Boeing has focused on extending its 747 jet and developing the fuel-efficient 787 to fly at high frequency between pairs of cities.

Boeing's marketing vice president Randy Baseler told a news conference that the company does not intend to develop any commercial airliners with more than 500 seats.

He said the rapid growth in airplane size envisaged by Airbus had not been seen since the period between 1970 and 1985, "a bygone era of few airplane choices in a highly regulated system.

"In contrast, the Boeing forecast is based on the assumption that airlines will continue to meet air travel growth with more frequencies and non-stop service using smaller, more efficient airplanes," Baseler said.

"Clearly, even using Airbus methodology, there has been little growth in average seats per airplane recently -- average seats per airplane grew only 2.0 percent in the last 10 years. We do not believe this trend will change."

An Airbus spokesman responded to the remarks, saying the company developed products to suit all markets.

"We believe there is a need in the market both for medium capacity long range aircraft as well as large aircraft," he said.

Boeing said it expects Asia Pacific to buy more than a third, or 36 percent, of all new aircraft, with North America taking 28 percent, Europe 24 percent and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa accounting for the remaining 12 percent.

In the next 20 years, Baseler estimated that airlines would buy 3,450 regional jets, 16,540 single-aisle aircraft, 6,230 twin-aisle airliners and 990 jets of 747 size or bigger.

He said single-aisle and twin-aisle jets with between 100 and 400 seats would account for almost all the growth in air travel during the period.

About 65 percent of the 27,200 new aircraft would account for growth while the rest would replace older planes.

High fuel prices and the introduction of efficient aircraft are driving the strong replacement demand, which is about 1,400 jets greater than Boeing forecast last year and is based on a revised projected price per barrel of oil of 50 dollars instead of 25 dollars, Baseler said.

He rejected charges that airliners are a major cause of global warming, saying they accounted for just 2.0 percent of carbon dioxide emissions while representing 8.0 percent of global economic activity.

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