Airlines to welcome 3.6 billion passengers in 2016

Some 800 million airline passengers will be added to last year's 2.8 billion in the next four years, for a total of 3.6 billion passengers, with China accounting for nearly one in four additional passengers, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in its four-year forecast released Friday. The 28.5 percent increase in passenger numbers over the forecast period will see almost 500 million new passengers travelling on domestic routes and 331 million on international services, the IATA said. “Despite the current economic uncertainty, expected demand for connectivity remains strong,” said IATA’s director general and CEO Tony Tyler. “That’s good news for the global economy.” IATA also said international freight volumes will grow at 3 percent per annum to total 34.5 million tons in 2016, which means an additional 4.8 million more to the 29.6 million carried in 2011. The emerging economies of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East will see the strongest passenger growth, the IATA said. The growth will be led by routes within or connected to China, which are expected to account for 193 million of the 831 million new passengers over the forecast period — 159 million on domestic routes and 34 million traveling internationally.   Passenger growth within the Asia-Pacific region, both domestic and international, is expected to add around 380 million passengers over the forecast period.   Through 2016, the United States will continue to be the largest single market for domestic passengers with 710.2 million. In the same year, passengers on international routes connected to the United States will total 223 million, making it the largest single market for international travel as well.   Tyler said growing air transport links generate jobs and underpin economic growth in all economies. “But exploiting these will require governments to recognize aviation’s value with policies that do not stifle innovation, tax regimes that do not punish success and investments to enable infrastructure to keep up with growth,” he said.   Globally, aviation supports some 57 million jobs and $2.2 trillion in economic activity.   Overall, international passenger numbers are expected to grow from 1.11 billion in 2011 to 1.45 billion passengers in 2016, bringing 331 million passengers for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3 percent.   Half of the 10 fastest growing markets for international passenger traffic are among the Commonwealth of Independent States or were part of the former Soviet Union with the others in Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. — KBK, GMA News