Global passenger traffic is expected to more than double over the next twenty years, according to latest long-term traffic forecast by DKMA.
“The forecast indicates that 17.4 billion passengers a year will use the world’s airports by 2036, up from 8.2 billion in 2017,” said DKMA director Damien Kobel. “More than half of the 9 billion additional passengers expected by 2036 will travel in Asia / Pacific, highlighting the dramatic shift from West to East that the industry will experience over the next 20 years.”
DKMA expects passenger traffic to grow an average of 4.3 percent each year. The markets expected to present the most growth over the 20 year period are Asia and the Pacific (+5.3 percent), the Middle East, (+5.1 percent), and Latin America and the Caribbean (+4.8 percent). Together, emerging markets represent almost 70 percent of projected traffic growth.
By 2036, passenger traffic from emerging economies like India and Indonesia will become market leaders, surpassing Japan, Germany, and the UK. China is expected to surpass the United States to become the global leader in passenger traffic.
“While several ongoing and emerging events may impact passenger traffic demand in the short term the global outlook is quite positive” said Catherine Harmel-Tourneur, DKMA’s director. “Both the scale and speed of growth indicated by this latest forecast represent a daunting challenge for airports who will need to continue investing in order to meet future demand while guaranteeing the sort of high quality experience that is essential to grow non-aeronautical revenue.”
