Aviation boom in Asia

Last year Asia charted a major milestone in air travel when it became the most profitable region in the airline world. That was because of the strong economic growth. Asia will again lead the way next year as its economies are booming and rising wealth is pushing air travel up.
AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani does not doubt the long-term fundamentals of the airline sector and predicts that it will be strong.
It is no wonder that the once struggling US carriers want to be back on the scene. Last week, Delta Airlines ranked the worlds No. 1 by passenger miles flown said it wanted to tap into the Asian market by mounting flights to Haneda and Shanghai initially. Hawaiian Airlines is already on the radar screen. The US carriers want to boost available seat per week to Asia by 14% between the 3Q10 and 3Q11.
Even within Asia, the carriers are intensifying efforts to grow intra-Asian routes. In India, Jet Airways wants to resume flights to Shanghai and later scale new heights by flying to Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei. It is all about positioning and strengthening at this juncture.
Asia is essentially home to the worlds three most populous nations India, China and Indonesia where four billion people live and this represents 62% of the worlds population. The Asia-Pacific region generates about 27% of the worlds GDP and rising wealth continues to drive air travel.
There are 600 million passengers in Asia Pacific, of which about 400 million travel within the region and about 200 million take to the international skies, annually.
The percentage of people flying in Asia is higher compared to the United States and Europe. Asia is made for aviation as road infrastructure is poor and land area is huge. The growth of aviation will be vibrant in Asia in 2011, says AirAsia group CEO Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.
Air travel moves in a 5-6 year cycle and it is currently in its fourth cycle. The first cycle began in 1979 and the fourth in 2008. During each cycle there is the boom and bust period.
History suggests that the strongest growth period occurs in the 4th to 5th year after a crisis and 2011 will be the 4th year of the current wave, Maybank Investment says in a report. It says load factor in the region is in the 70% range.
The cycle began during the downturn and the recovery has been strong with most airlines in Asia having reinstated the capacity they took off in 2008 and 2009.
25/12/10 The Star Online, Malaysia

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Categories: Foreign Dec 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2010