Asia Pacific to see 1.8bn more air passengers
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Traffic on routes to, from and within the Asia Pacific region will increase by a staggering 1.8 billion passengers in the next 20 years, IATA has forecast.
The growth will see the region’s traffic increase by more than 160% between now and 2034, to a total of 2.9bn passengers per year. Asia Pacific’s average annual growth rate will be 4.9% – the joint highest in the world, along with the Middle East.
This growth will contribute to a projected doubling on global air traffic by 2034, to seven billion passengers per year, 42% of which will be on Asia Pacific routes.
The five fastest-growing markets in terms of additional passenger numbers over the next 20 years will be China (758 million new passengers, for a total of 1.196bn), the US (523m new passengers for a total of 1.156bn), India (275m new passengers for a total of 378m), Indonesia (132m new passengers for a total of 219m) and Brazil (104m new passengers for a total of 202m).
Asia Pacific is expected to see two of the world 10 fastest growing air markets, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, and the region is also expected to feature in three of the five fastest growing routes: Indonesia-East Timor (+13.9%), India-Hong Kong (+10.4%) and within Pakistan (+9.9%).
IATA also noted that a “sizable gulf” has opened up between the performance of air passenger markets in the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
China and India are growing fast, with annual growth rates in 2015 of 12.5% and 16.5% respectively. India has bounced back from a subdued 2014, and is seeing a strong increase in domestic frequencies. And while China’s growth rate has moderated, it is still on course to add an additional 230m passenger journeys between 2014 and 2019 – more than double the other three BRIC nations put together. Brazil and Russia, by contrast, are struggling.
Between now and 2034, air traffic in North America is expected to grow 3.3% per year to 1.4bn, while European traffic will increase 2.7% to 1.4bn. Latin American markets will grow 4.7% to 605m passengers, while the Middle East will increase 4.9% per year to 383m passengers. And Africa is forecast to grow 4.7% annually to 294m passengers.
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