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India will displace the United Kingdom as the third-largest market by 2026 by passenger traffic, a new study said.
India will also be the third fastest aviation market in terms of new passenger addition, behind only China and US, the report by The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said. India will have 275 million new passengers for a total of 378 million till 2034. China is expected to have 758 million new passengers for a total of 1.196 billion, while the US will have 523 million new passengers for a total of 1.156 billion.
In terms of routes, Asian, South American and African destinations will see the fastest growth, reflecting economic and demographic growth in those markets, the report said. Indonesia-East Timor will be the fastest growing route, at 13.9 per cent, followed by India-Hong Kong at 10.4 per cent.
“The demand for air transport continues to grow. There is much work to be done to prepare for the 7 billion passengers expected to take the skies in 2034,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
China and India are growing fast, with annual growth this year-to-date of 12.5 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively. India has bounced back from a subdued 2014, and is seeing a strong increase in domestic frequencies.
“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. Air transport is a critical part of the global economy. The economic impact of 400 million fewer travellers is significant. It is important that we don’t create additional headwinds with excessive taxation, onerous regulation or infrastructure deficiencies,” said Tyler.
The report said global passenger numbers are expected to reach 7 billion by 2034 with a 3.8 per cent average annual growth in demand (2014 baseline year). That is more than double the 3.3 billion who flew in 2014 and exactly twice as many as the 3.5 billion expected in 2015.
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