Boeing Industrial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal says 2023 has been a 12 months of orders for widebody plane with the U.S. producer anticipating to announce extra offers at this week’s Dubai Airshow.

His feedback come after stories that Boeing and Emirates are near agreeing a significant order of 777 jets, including to the Emirati flag provider’s current order backlog of 155 777X plane from Boeing.

“We have seen robust restoration within the narrow-body ordering in 2022 and now in 2023 it appears to be the 12 months of widebody orders, and I believe as you see this present unfold, you are going to see many extra widebody orders for the trade,” Deal, who can also be the chief vp of Boeing, advised CNBC’s Dan Murphy.

Earlier this 12 months, Saudi Arabian flag provider Saudia and the newly-established Riyadh Air every logged orders for 39 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jets, and Deal believes demand from the Gulf will proceed to develop quickly.

The Dubai Airshow kicked off on Monday, and Deal confirmed that lively discussions are underway with quite a lot of Gulf carriers.

“This can be a very distinctive area within the geography that it represents. Inside an eight-hour flight, you’ll be able to get to 80% of the world’s inhabitants, and we forecast over the subsequent 20 years about 3,000 plane shall be wanted on this area,” Deal mentioned.

“This area tends to skew in the direction of widebody order demand — that is been the hallmark attribute as a result of they’re linked worlds — so in orders you’ve got seen final 12 months from Saudia and Riyadh Air ordering 787s, that was type of the beginning level of what seems to be an order interval for us now.”