Asian aviation seen growing five-fold by 2013

Asian aviation seen growing five-fold by 2013

BEIJING (Reuter): International air passenger traffic in Asia will increase five-fold in the next 20 years to far outstrip the U.S. market, the present world leader, a McDonnell Douglas official said.

By 2013, international passenger traffic in Asia will surge to 2.26 trillion revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), nearly five times last year's 449 billion RPK, McDonnell Douglas chief economist Adam Pilarski told a conference here over the weekend.

U.S. traffic is seen only doubling in the same period to 1.22 trillion RPK from 552 billion RPK in 1993, he said.

Asia's percentage of the world total is expanding rapidly, having grown to 23 percent last year from 10 percent in 1973, Pilarski said. By 2013, Asian traffic will comprise 37 percent of the global total, he said.

Asia's international freight traffic in 2013 will reach 62 percent of the world total, up from 43 percent last year.

"The main reasons for these rapid increases reflect the booming economies of the region, long distances between countries and increasingly important intra-Asia trade," he said.

"In fact, intra-Far East passenger traffic will grow at a rate of more than nine percent (a year), making it the world's fastest-growing area," Pilarski said.

McDonnell Douglas organized the conference to help major Asian airlines to plan for an expected continuing surge in demand.

The American manufacturer has a joint-production venture in China and supplies aircraft to two of China's major airlines, China Eastern and China Northern.