The global air traffic set a new record in 2017 when the number of passengers for the first time has passed the threshold of 4 billion. This was announced today by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The number of passengers transported last year reached 4.1 billion, representing an increase of 7.3% over the previous year due to the improvement of the world economy and lower ticket prices.
The Asia-Pacific region, which is the world’s largest airline, reports the strongest growth. The passengers there have increased by 10.6% to 1.5 billion people.
The European airlines have transported 8.2% more people or 1.1 billion passengers last year, despite the bankruptcies of German Air Berlin and the British Monarch.
Below the average was growth in North America (3.2%), Latin America (4.1%), Middle East (4.6%) and Africa (6.6%).
The number of air links has also reached a new record of over 20,000 routes linking individual cities.
“Flying has never been so affordable”, said the head of the IATA, Alexandre de Juniac. “While the average citizen flew only once in 43 months in 2000, people are flying every 22 months now”, added he.
