The Middle East will see the strongest international air passenger growth between 2013 and 2017 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% with the UAE adding 29.2 million passengers over the forecast period, nearly as many as China, a report said.

Asia-Pacific will see a CAGR of 5.7%, followed by Africa and Latin America with CAGR of 5.3% and 4.5% added the IATA Airline Industry Forecast 2013-2017 released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Globally, airlines expect to see a 31% increase in passenger numbers between 2013 and 2017, the report said. By 2017 total passenger numbers are expected to rise to 3.91 billion- an increase of 930 million passengers over the 2.98 billion carried in 2012.

International passenger numbers are expected to rise by 25% from 1.2 billion in 2013 to 1.5 billion in 2017, bringing 292 million additional passengers (4.6 % CAGR).

The IATA Airline Industry Forecast 2013-2017 is a consensus outlook for system-wide passenger growth. Demand is expected to expand by an average of 5.4 % compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2013 and 2017.

By comparison, global passenger growth expanded by 4.3% CAGR between 2008 and 2012, largely reflecting the negative impact of the 2008 global financial crisis and recession. Of the new passengers, approximately 292 million will be carried on international routes and 638 million on domestic routes.

Routes within or connected to China will be the single largest driver of growth, accounting for 24% of new passengers during the forecast period. Of the anticipated 227.4 million additional passengers, 195 million will be domestic and 32.4 million will be international.

The Asia-Pacific region (including China) is expected to add around 300 million additional passengers by the end of the current forecast horizon. Of these, around 225 million or 75% are expected to be domestic passengers.

With 677.8 million domestic passengers in 2017, the US will continue to be the largest single market for domestic passengers, although it will add only 70 million passengers over the forecast period (2.2% CAGR). Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}