SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Boeing on Wednesday released the 2023 Commercial Aircraft Finance Market Outlook (CAFMO) showing another year of recovery and increased demand from aircraft financiers and investors.

"With production and delivery increases and the reopening of certain regional markets, we forecast aircraft financing needs to reach near pre-pandemic levels in 2023," said Rich Hammond, vice president of Customer Finance at Boeing. "This positive trend reaffirms that our industry's fundamentals are strong and aircraft financiers and investors are well positioned as travel continues to recover."

The 2023 CAFMO is Boeing's annual review of aircraft financing trends and assesses near-term market dynamics and financing sources for new commercial airplane deliveries.

In 2022, the majority of Boeing airplanes were funded with cash due to strong operational performance and de-leveraging efforts by customers. Export credit agencies supported nearly 5 percent of Boeing deliveries in 2022, according to the company.

While cash funding will continue to play a significant part in delivery financing, the use of capital markets, bank debt and export credit is expected to expand, Boeing said.

The Boeing 2022 Commercial Market Outlook, a separate annual 20-year forecast addressing the market for commercial airplanes and services, reflects that the global market is recovering.

Demand for domestic air travel has made a strong recovery across a number of regions, with international traffic gaining momentum as restrictions ease, tracking to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023 to 2024, Boeing noted.