NAN-F-54
Passengers
Geneva, Oct. 24, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Airline traffic will nearly double to 7.8 billion passengers in the next two decades, from 4 billion in 2017, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in Geneva on Tuesday.
“The Asian markets will be the strongest driver of the expansion while China will overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest aviation market in about five years.
“Increasing demand will bring a significant infrastructure challenge.
“Although runways and terminals will become strained, however, building ever bigger airports is not the right solution,” IATA Director-General Alexandre de Juniac said.
Instead, airports should move some their activities to other locations and should try to become more efficient, the former Air France-KLM chief executive proposed.
While IATA expects passenger traffic to grow by an annual average of 3.6 per cent, it warns that trade protectionism and travel restrictions could slow down this rate to 2.7 per cent. (Reuters/NAN)
OYE/HA
=======
Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu