To The Moon

Boeing Co. said Tuesday the commercial airplanes and services businesses are showing expected signs of recovery from the depths of the pandemic slowdown in 2020, while the global defense, space and government services markets have remained stable. The aerospace giant published its annual Boeing Market Outlook for 2021 and said it expects a $9 trillion market in the next decade for aerospace products and services, up from $8.5 trillion a year ago and from $8.7 trillion in 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19. "We are encouraged by the fact that scientists have delivered vaccines more rapidly than imaginable and that passengers are demonstrating strong confidence in airplane travel," Boeing Chief Strategy Officer Marc Allen said in a statement. The commercial market is recovering as Boeing had predicted it would in 2020, with demand for domestic air travel leading the way. The company is expecting intra-regional markets to follow once health and travel restrictions are lifted, followed by long-haul flights, which are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 to 2024. Boeing is expecting increased demand for freighters, given the growth in e-commerce and air freight's speed and reliability and expects the global freighter fleet to be 70% larger in 2040 than it is now. Vaccine supply and uptake will be key in the near-term recovery of passenger air travel and traffic is expected to increase by an average of 4% a year, unchanged from last year's forecast. Boeing shares were down 0.6% premarket, and have gained 0.2% in the year through Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 14% and the S&P 500 has gained 19%.