930m more airline passengers by 2017 – IATA
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The world’s airlines will carry approximately 3.9 billion passengers by 2017 – 930 million more than in 2012, according to a new forecast by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The IATA Airline Industry Forecast 2013-2017, released today (10 December 2013), shows that global air passenger traffic levels are expected to jump 31% in just five years, at a compound annual growth rate of 5.4%. This marks an acceleration from the previous five-year period, during which traffic increased 4.3% per year.
Of the new passengers, approximately 292m will be carried on international routes and 638m on domestic routes.
The emerging economies of the Middle East and Asia Pacific will see the strongest international passenger growth, with annual growth rates of 6.3% and 5.7% respectively. Routes to, from or within China will be the single largest driver of growth, accounting for 24% of new passengers during the forecast period.
The Asia Pacific region as a whole (including China) is expected to add around 300m additional passengers by 2017, 75% of which are expected to be domestic passengers.
“The fact that the Asia Pacific region – led by China – and the Middle East will deliver the strongest growth over the forecast period is not surprising,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general & CEO.
“Governments in both areas recognise the value of the connectivity provided by aviation to drive global trade and development. Similar opportunities exist for developing regions in Africa and Latin America. To reap the benefit, governments in those regions will need to change their view of aviation from a luxury cash cow to a utilitarian powerful draft horse to pull the economy forward.”
Despite Asia’s rise, the US will continued to be the world’s biggest domestic aviation market, handling 677.8m internal passengers in 2017, although this marks a growth rate of just 2.2% per year. China will be second, with 487.9m domestic passengers in 2017.
In terms of international traffic, several Asian countries are expected to see strong growth, including Kazakhstan (9.0% annual growth), China (7.1%), Vietnam (6.9%) and Pakistan (6.7%).
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