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Singapore - China and India will become the driving force of
aviation in the future, said the International Air Transport Association (Iata)
on Monday.
The global industry body said the Asia-Pacific region is
already the single largest market for aviation in the world. “By 2014 it will
represent 30% of the total market and it is still growing fast,” said Giovanni
Bisignani, the outgoing CEO.
Bisignani said the region already represents 40% of the
global cargo market.
“The region will produce 360 million more travellers by
2014, of which 210 million will be from China alone. China is hungry for
aviation to drive prosperity. They have built 45 new airports in the past five
years alone and are planning a further 52 by 2020.”
He added that three of the five largest airlines by market
value are from the region.
“The region will also be the most profitable region this
year. We expect Asia-Pacific carriers to earn $2.1bn in 2011, the most
profitable of all regions. This region will also be the only region where
demand increases (6.4%) will outstrip capacity growth (5.9%) in 2011.”
Iata also said on Monday that it expected the global
aviation industry to make a combined profit of $4bn in 2011. African carriers are expected to make a loss of about $100m.
Iata is holding its annual meeting in Singapore this week
with more than 700 industry leaders attending.
Increase in traffic
The body estimates that air traffic will increase to 16
billion people by 2050 and air cargo will increase to 400 million tonnes per
year. In 2011 the expected number of airline passengers is 2.7 billion, while
48 million tonnes of cargo will be transported by air.
Bisignani said airlines were faced with a tremendous
challenge to meet this growth in demand, due to profit margins not making the
business sustainable.
“After a decade of crisis and shocks, airlines today are
safer, stronger, leaner and greener. But sustainable profitability remains
elusive," he said.
Estimated profits this year is about $4bn, while total revenue of is seen at $598bn. "Over the past four decades the net return of the industry has been 0.1%. This has led to an increasingly fragile industry,” he said.
