Does China need 442 airplanes a year?

442 airplanes, including 150 the Boeing 737s, and 150 Airbus A-320s, are ordered by China in the year 2005.

The problem is not that 1.3 billion people don’t need that many aircrafts, quite the opposite, according to one Chinese aviation analyst, compared to a single US airlines that has a fleet of 1,000 aircrafts, the number of all aircrafts that Chinese airlines have is around 900. That is why Boeing bets big in China and it forecasts that by the year 2024, China needs 2,600 airplanes.

The real concern lies in the fact that barely 5% of Chinese flies, air travel is still considered a luxury. The number of frequent air passengers is even lower. How to convince and motivate majority of 1.3 billion people, who just recently did well enough to travel, to buy a air ticket that is equal to a month salary.