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February 2, 2010

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Home » Business » Transport

Asia Pacific flies to top ranking

CHINA led Asia Pacific to outpace North America to become the world's largest aviation market in 2009, an industry report said yesterday.

Air passenger traffic within Asia Pacific totaled 647 million last year, which outstripped the 638 million travelers in North America, the International Air Transport Association said yesterday.

An additional 217 million travelers are expected to take to the skies within Asia Pacific in 2013, the report said.

The global aviation industry is expected to trim losses from US$11 billion in 2009 to US$5.6 billion this year. Asia Pacific's carriers are expected to shrink their losses from US$3.4 billion in 2009 to US$700 million in 2010, the report said.

"Asia Pacific's prospects are improving faster than other regions," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and CEO.

As the biggest aviation market in the region, China's industry chalked up a net profit of 12.2 billion yuan (US$1.79 billion) last year.

"The global air transport market will triple in size when Asians travel as much as those in the US," Bisignani said.

By the end of last year, Chinese airlines had a fleet of 1,400 aircraft.




 

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