Asia-Pacific to lead global growth in air passengers

Strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region will see its share of global airline passenger traffic increase from 23 per cent last year to 27 per cent of the global total of 2.75 billion passengers by 2011, aviation industry body IATA says.
This is equivalent to a 279 million increase in annual passengers within the region over the five years.
Asia-Pacific will have a higher share of the global market than the US domestic market, although it will still be slightly smaller than the North American market as a whole.
The International Air Transport Association figures show the 2.75 billion figure for total travellers represents a 29 per cent increase on those flying last year.
IATA says the number of travellers taking international flights would increase to 980 million from 760 million in the next five years, with average annual growth of 5.1 per cent.
On domestic routes, passenger demand is expected to hit 1.77 billion by 2011, compared to the 1.37 billion who flew in 2006, in part because of expanded flight traffic inside large countries such as India and China.
26/10/07 Grant Bradley/New Zealand Herald, New Zealand

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, General Aviation Oct 2007