UNI
GENEVA
India will take the third place after the United States, surpassing the United Kingdom by 2024, global airline International Air Transport Association said on Thursday.
The Association said China will also displace the United States as the world’s largest aviation market in the mid-2020s. The rebalancing of China’s economy towards consumption will support strong passenger demand over the long term.
The IATA has noted down all these points in its 20-year Air Passenger Forecast here.
IATA Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said here that present trends in air transport suggest passenger numbers could double to 8.2 billion in 2037.
Juniac said by 2037, China would have one billion new origin-destination passengers for a total of 1.6 billion followed by US with 481 million new passengers for a total of 1.3 billion and India with 414 million new passengers for a total of 572 million.
“Aviation is growing, and that is generating huge benefits for the world. A doubling of air passengers in the next 20 years could support 100 million jobs globally,” he added.
He said the Asia-Pacific region will drive the biggest growth with more than half the total number of new passengers over the next 20 years coming from these markets. Growth in this market is being driven by a combination of continued robust economic growth, improvements in household incomes and favorable population and demographic profiles.
The Association, however, warned that growth prospects for air transport, and the economic benefits driven by aviation, could be curtailed if protectionist measures are implemented by governments.