Sharjah24 – AFP: After flying into the financial turbulence of the Covid pandemic, the airline sector expects passenger traffic to take off despite concerns about the industry's impact on climate change.
In its latest look at trends for the sector, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it doesn't expect world air traffic to resume to its pre-pandemic level before 2023.
But over 20 years, air traffic should almost double, from 4.5 billion passengers in 2019 to 8.5 billion in 2039.
That is, however, a drop of one billion passengers from IATA's pre-crisis forecast.
Nevertheless that will be good news for aircraft manufacturers, who slowed down production during the crisis as airlines cancelled orders to stay financially afloat.
Airbus has already announced it plans to step up the manufacturing cadence of its best-selling A320 single-aisle aircraft and should reach a record level already in 2023.
Boeing, for its part, forecasts that airlines will need 43,110 new aircraft through 2039, which will result in a near doubling of the global fleet. Asia alone will account for 40 percent of that demand.
In many emerging countries where the middle class is expanding air travel is becoming possible for more and more people.
In 2019, air traffic declined by four percent in Sweden -- but it hit a record across Europe, according to the air traffic control body Eurocontrol.
Airlines have an economic incentive to do so, as adopting more fuel efficient planes reduces operating costs.
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