Asian air transport to grow

Asian air transport to grow

JAKARTA (JP): Rolls Royce plc, a giant manufacturer of
airplane engines, has said it expects the Asia-Pacific region to
become the world's largest air transport market within the next
two decades.

Tim Jones, the company's director for Southeast Asia, said in
a statement that air transport was relatively underdeveloped in
many Asian countries and would present potential for investment
once the region's current economic problems had been solved.

He noted that in the U.S. there is one aircraft in service for
every 56,000 people, while in Japan, China and India, the ratio
is one to 300,000, four million and nine million respectively.

Further liberalization of air transport in Asia would also
contribute to sustained growth in the region, he said.

Roll Royce predicts that the Asia-Pacific region will develop
the largest intra-region traffic flow, with growth expected to be
around 7.8 percent per annum for the next 20 years. That, he
said, should make the region the largest buyer of wide-bodied
aircraft.

He predicted that global passenger travel would increase at 5
percent per annum over the next 20 years, requiring a fleet of
35,000 civil aircraft worth US$1,500 billion. (02)