Aviation industry expects 800 million more travellers by 2014

Kuala Lumpur, Feb 15: There will be 3.3 billion air travellers in 2014, up by 800 million from the 2.5 billion in 2009, a latest survey has revealed.

By 2014, international aviation will handle 38 million tonnes of air cargo, up 12.5 million tonnes from 26 million tonnes flown in 2009, an industry consensus forecast by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revealed.

China will be the biggest contributor of new travellers, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Of the 800 million new air travellers expected in 2014, 360 million (45 per cent) will travel on Asia-Pacific routes and of those 214 million will be associated with China (181 million domestic and 33 million international).

The United States will remain the largest single country market for domestic passengers (671 million) and international passengers (215 million), it further said.

Bernama through PTI