I'm in London today, presenting Boeing's 2005 Current Market Outlook (CMO).

Typically we do this each year around the time of the big international air shows in June and July. With the Paris Air Show coming up next week, it's a chance for us to publicly present our forecast for the commercial aviation market for the next 20 years.

What's so important about a 20-year forecast? To put it simply, the CMO influences our whole business approach to the market place.

We've been talking for many years about how our forecast is driving product strategy. We see the market continuing to be more and more liberalized and competitive. Airlines are responding to that competitive environment by providing what passengers want: more nonstop, point-to-point flights with more frequency choices.

Our new airplane delivery forecast is based on that view of the market.

And the market we see is a strong one. Between now and 2024 we're projecting a $2.1 trillion market for new commercial airplanes.

In terms of numbers, we think airlines will need 25,700 new airplanes over the next 20 years - that includes passenger airplanes and freighters.

When you look at the pie chart, you can see single-aisles (737-size) will be the bulk of those new airplane deliveries - 60%. Airplanes of 747-size and larger make up only a small piece of the pie - a little over 3%.

For more details and a more specific breakdown you can click over to the Current Market Outlook page.

Our forecast is based on a worldwide GDP growth of 2.9%. That's the foundation for our projection of around 5% growth in air passengers and a little over 6% growth in cargo traffic.

And with that kind of growth in passengers and cargo we will see the commercial airline fleet more than double over the next 20 years - to over 35,000 airplanes.

In the chart above, the figure of 16,778 represents the current worldwide commercial airplane fleet. 35,300 represents the size of the fleet we predict in 20 years.

Getting us there is a projected 18,500 new commercial airplanes due to growth alone between now and 2024. Of course during that time period some airplanes will need to retire. We're estimating that number to be about 7,200 airplanes. And those will need to be replaced. So all in all, airlines will need about 25,700 new airplanes to handle growth and to replace retiring airplanes.

Combined with a retained fleet of about 9,600 airplanes (which are out flying today and will still be in the fleet in 2024) you get a total worldwide fleet of about 35,300 airplanes.

One of the more interesting projections in our outlook is that a lot of the growth will be in the Asia-Pacific market. In fact, in terms of delivery dollars, Asia-Pacific will make up 36% of the commercial airplanes market.

That will be just one of many topics to get into a bit further as we go forward in a robust commercial airplanes market. To get you started on the discussion, you can view my CMO presentation.

In the meantime, I'm heading to Paris. And I'll talk to you from Le Bourget.