São Paulo – By 2020, airports in the Gulf should see a combined annual throughput of 250 million passengers, and by 2015, the Dubai Airport should be the world’s busiest. So says the study “The world through the Gulf,” released by the organizers of the Airport Show, a fair due from May 6th to 8th in Dubai. The survey was conducted using data from the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao), the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The survey was released last Thursday (25th).
The survey forecasts that airports in the Gulf will receive increasing numbers of passengers because they are located in a strategic region, from which major markets can be reached through direct flights. The survey claims that passenger flows should rise by 5.2% each year until 2030, exceeding the global average of 4.6%.
The survey also claims that by 2020, Emirati airlines will have a combined capacity to carry up to 200 million passengers a year, which is four times their current capacity. The capacity increase will be due to firm orders for new aircraft. The region’s airports are among the top investors in infrastructure: spending should exceed US$ 50 billion in the next 15 years to meet growing demand.
The survey makes forecasts regarding the growth of markets and demand in other countries. The five leading issuers of passengers until 2016 are the United States (223.1 million), United Kingdom (200.8 million), Germany (172.9 million), Spain (134.6 million) and France (123.1 million). However, the markets, according to the survey, are the former Soviet Union countries, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, African countries such as Sudan, Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, and Latin American countries such as Uruguay and Chile.
The survey indicates that by 2016, Brazil will be one of the countries with the highest amounts of domestic passenger traffic (118.9 million), ranking third after the United States (710.2 million) and China (415 million), and it should also see an average growth of 6.3% in freight between 2011 and 2016. The survey forecasts that in 2016, the world’s airlines will carry a combined 3.6 billion people, up 800 million from 2.8 billion in 2011.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
