The world's airliner fleet has recorded significant annual growth for the first time since the post-2001 downturn. Produced by The Flight Group's newly acquired aviation data arm AvSoft, this year's Flight International World Airliner Census shows that the fleet size has increased by 5% to 24,562 aircraft.
The Western-built fleet grew by 6% to 21,611 aircraft - slightly above the average annual growth until 2001. The Russian/CIS-built fleet, however, has again declined in size, to less than 3,000 aircraft.
Although the number of idle Western-built jet airliners is still above 2,000, AvSoft records that the active jet fleet has increased by 800 aircraft to almost 16,000 over the past 12 months, with the number of idle aircraft declining slightly over the period.
| World airliner fleet | ||||
|
| 2004 | 2003 | Difference | % |
| Western-built | 21,611 | 20,373 | +1,238 | +6 |
| Russian-built | 2,951 | 3,111 | -160 | -5 |
| Total | 24,252 | 23,484 | +1,078 | +5 |
| Source: AvSoft | ||||
Source: Flight International
