Aerospace Composites Growing in Demand for Manufacturing New Aircrafts

The growing aviation market and traffic are leading to the expansion of the commercial aircraft fleet. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) stated that the global air traffic is projected to reach 7.8 billion passengers by 2036. The expanding travel and tourism industry, rising living standards in emerging economies, and lower airfares are driving the civil aviation sector. Asia is predicted to be responsible for the majority of the growth in passenger traffic. Countries such as India and China are witnessing a rapid surge in the movement of domestic as well as international passengers. This is not to say that the developed nations are lagging behind. Europe and North America will continue to contribute to the aviation market due to the expected rising influx of international passengers for business and tourism purposes. This rapidly growing passenger traffic is predicted to lead to the expansion of the commercial aircraft fleet. The manufacturing of new aircraft then is projected to drive the aerospace composites market.  

Now, what exactly are aerospace composites? In most basic terms, these are a combination of several materials. Composites can be created with two or more materials that have different physical or chemical properties. The important part about composites is that the materials they are made of don’t fully combine with each other and retain their original properties, thereby resulting in a material that has excellent strength, good stiffness-to-density ratio, and superior physical properties. These properties of composites make them ideal for the aerospace industry. In 2017, the global aerospace composites market attained a value of $2,376.7 million, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% in the coming years. One of the reasons for this growth is the rising demand for carbon fiber composites in aircraft manufacturing.

Leading aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and The Boeing Company are focusing on using lightweight structural materials for the manufacturing of aircraft components, as aircraft weight is a critical indicator of its operational performance. This is where carbon fiber composites come in. Carbon fiber or graphite fiber is a polymer material made up of carbon filaments that are bonded together in microscopic crystals. These composites are lightweight and offer relatively higher strength than other composites. These properties also help in improving the fuel economy of commercial aircraft and lowering their overall operational cost. Due to these advantages, carbon fiber composites, among all types of aerospace composites, accounted for more than 50.0% sales and 55.0% revenue in 2017. The demand for carbon fiber composites is predicted to increase in the coming years as well because of the growing aviation sector, which will likely encourage the development of new aircraft.

According to the data provided by McKinsey & Company, India and China would purchase more than 3,500 planes over the next two decades. This surging requirement for aircraft in developing countries, such as Indonesia, apart from India and China is proving to be highly beneficial for the players in the market. The middle-class population, along with disposable income, is increasing rapidly in these nations, thereby leading to economic prosperity, which is further driving the demand for commercial aircraft. The passenger traffic in emerging economies is growing due to the increasing income level; this is responsible for the rapidly increasing sales of the composites used in aircraft manufacturing.

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Created on Aug 20th 2019 17:04. Viewed 668 times.

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