China seen as world’s fastest-growing air travel market

A new study by Boeing of the market for commercial airplanes predicts that China will be the fastest-growing domestic air travel market over the next 20 years, with Chinese airlines expected to acquire 3,400 new planes during that period, quadrupling its domestic fleet. The study predicts that China will show average passenger traffic growth of 8.8 percent a year. “Following the anticipated surge in passenger traffic for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the China domestic market will grow nearly five-fold by 2026 to become slightly larger than today’s intra-North America market,” Boeing said. It added that it expects air travel between North America and China to more than double over the next 20 years, and the number of city-pairs served to more than triple. Meanwhile, in preparation for the Olympics traffic next year, Beijing’s Capital International Airport is building a spacious new Terminal 3 that is expected to debut in February 2008, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster. Terminals 1 and 2, designed to accommodate 35 million passengers a year, currently accommodate more than 48 million.