TRANSPORT/ Global Aviation Trends

International Air Transport Association (IATA) projects a rapid rise in the number of air passengers in a 20-year forecast report. The report notes that on average, the demand for air travel connections is set to grow at a pace of 4.1 percent each year. This means that the Association expects a total of 7.3 billion passengers come 2034, a huge leap forward considering that the number of air travelers currently rests at 3.3 billion people per year.  China is a key pillar in this forecast becau...

A recent survey conducted at SITA, by the aviation IT specialists revealed that American passengers are the unhappiest flyers in the world. Almost 28% of the American population expressed their dissatisfaction with the travel experiences they had. The people of the Middle East on the other hand turned out to be the happiest, with only 16% of them being dissatisfied. The Europeans were close to the Middle East in terms of travel satisfaction, with a low dissatisfaction rate of 18%. Americans ...

Transport industry economics is widely affected by fuel prices. A reduction in the cost of jet fuel should therefore be followed by lower air fares. Associated Press’ air travel analysts however note that this isn’t the case as the cost of boarding a plane in the U.S. has gone up by 10.7 percent in the last five years regardless of the downward swing of jet fuel prices. This means that U.S. airlines obtain additional millions of dollars on a weekly basis since jet fuel form the biggest chunk ...

Despite increasing passenger volumes, the Asian airlines are having difficulty breaking even. One of the defining culprits is interestingly the excess capacity. DG Andrew Herdman of AAPA (Association of Asia Pacific Airlines) notes that collectively the Asian airline industry has been just under breakeven in the first half of 2014. Herdman stated at the AAPA annual meeting in Tokyo this year revealed, that revenues were not consistent with volume growth. Consequently the industry saw a drop i...