BEIJING - Chinese clients will purchase around 2,500 aircraft in the 2011-2015 period, the head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China has predicted.

Speaking at the two-day 2012 China Civil Aviation Development Forum, which opened on Wednesday in Beijing, Li Jiaxiang added that the country's total number of civil aircraft will exceed 4,500 by 2015.

Li noted the rapid development of China's civil aviation, describing it as still being a "sunrise industry."

Tony Tyler, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said that the country's aviation market is and will remain huge.

Tyler predicted that global air passengers will increase by 877 million by 2015 compared to 2010, and that around one fourth of the new passengers will come from China.

China currently transports the seventh-largest number of air passengers in the world, and the fourth-largest number of airborne goods.