India has been projected to be the second fastest growing country in the world for passenger traffic by the Airports Council International (ACI) in its traffic forecasts between 2017-40.
In its forecasts, the ACI said by 2022, passenger traffic in emerging economies like India would surpass advanced economies. Passenger traffic in emerging economies would touch 5.4 billion, slightly ahead of advanced economies at 5.3 billion by 2022. By 2040, international passenger traffic would attain parity with domestic traffic, meaning more and more number of people would travel off shore with heightened economic activities, it said.
The ACI, a global trade body representing airports across the globe, has put Vietnam at the top position with a 8.5 per cent growth rate, followed by India at 7.5 per cent and Iran at 7.3 per cent. China has been placed at the 8th position with 5.9 per cent growth rate.
The Asia-Pacific region would continue to show a healthy growth rate and between 2017-40, the passenger traffic growth rate would be 38.8 per cent, the fastest in the world. The growth in Europe would be 26 per cent and 8.4 per cent in North America, indicating that Asia-Pacific region would shape the future of the global aviation industry.
Describing the middle east at the ‘aviation bridge’, the ACI said the strong growth in the region was because of its strategic location and liberalised market. This had enabled the region to be developed into an international hub, connecting long haul flights from east and west, north and south.
Earlier, in its report, ACI had said that India was poised to be one of the largest aviation markets in the world in the years to come and it placed the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi among the top twenty busiest airports in the world, putting it at the 16th position. Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai were also ranked among the fastest growing airports in the world with an year-over-year growth of 26.9 per cent, 19.6 per cent, 12.9 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively during 2017, the ACI said.