India is expected to displace Britain as the third-largest air transport market by 2026, an International Air Transport Association's updated passenger growth forecast says. The same forecast also said China is expected to overtake the United States as the world's largest passenger market by 2029.
It projected that globally total passenger numbers will reach 7 billion by 2034 with a 3.8 per cent average annual growth in demand taking 2014 as baseline year. Previously, IATA forecast that global air passenger count will reach 7.4 billion by 2034 based on a 4.1 per cent average annual growth rate. The global air transportation body said that the revised result reflect a negative trend in the world economy which is expected to dampen demand for air transport, especially slower economic growth projections for China.
“Economic and political events over the last year have impacted some of the fundamentals for growth. As a result, we expect some 400 million fewer people to be travelling in 2034 than we did at this time last year,” said Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive of IATA. India is expected to add 275 million new passengers taking its total passenger numbers to 378 million. In terms of routes, Indonesia-East Timor will be the fastest growing at 13.9 per cent, followed by India-Hong Kong at 10.4 per cent.
Currently, aviation helps sustain 58 million jobs and $2.4 trillion in economic activity. In 2014, 3.3 billion passengers flew. The number of passengers in 2015 is expected to reach 3.5 billion.
