China's civic aviation companies may purchase 1,600 jetliners as air passengers in the country are expected to increase at an average rate of 9.3 percent annually in the coming 20 years, a Boeing company executive said in Beijing Tuesday.

Sixty to seventy percent of the planes may come from Boeing, said Randy Baseler, vice president of Marketing for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group.

The purchase of 1,600 new planes, worth 120 billion U.S. dollars, will make China the second largest aviation market following the United States, said Baseler while delivering a market outlook report at a press conference.

The number of Chinese air passengers increased 19 percent year on year during 1985 and 1995 and four percent during the following three years, reaching 57 million in 1998.

Boeing has been a major partner of Chinese airlines since it entered the Chinese market in 1972. So far, the country has ordered over 19 billion dollars worth of Boeing airplanes.