SINGAPORE - Asia-Pacific is tipped to become the world's biggest aircraft market in the next 20 years, with regional airlines buying almost 9,000 planes worth 1.1 trillion dollars, a Boeing official said Friday.

The scramble for new planes will be fuelled by a need to meet rising air travel demand as economic growth outpaces the rest of the world, said Randy Tinseth, vice president for marketing, commercial planes, at Boeing.

"What this means is that the Asia-Pacific market both in terms of units as well as in terms of investments will be the world's largest marketplace," he told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation forum in Singapore.

"We expect the airlines of Asia-Pacific to require almost 9,000 airplanes over the next 20 years valued at 1.1 trillion US dollars," he said.

Forecasts made by Boeing indicate that the region's economic growth will average 4.4 percent annually over the next two decades, which means airline traffic is likely to rise 6.5 percent a year from now to 2028, Tinseth said.

Cargo traffic will grow 6.3 percent annually over the same period, he added.

"As a result of this growth in the emerging and developing markets, the landscape for air travel will change," Tinseth said.