Boeing (2019)
Year-over-year traffic growth averaged 6.7 percent during the past five years as measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPKs). This growth is well above the long-term average of 5 percent. Low air fares, higher living standards with a growing middle class in large emerging markets, the growth of tourism and travel relative to total consumer spending in major economies, and new airline business models are all driving this strength in air travel growth.
Emerging markets around the world continue to drive economic growth. They accounted for more than 60 percent of the world’s economic growth between 2008 and 2018. In the last 10 years, routes between or within emerging markets accounted for approximately 40 percent of new passenger traffic.
A feature of these emerging economies is rapid urbanization. As people enter the urban middle class, their propensity to travel increases dramatically. According to the World Bank, over 4 billion people now live in cities globally, with unprecedented access to air travel from nearby airports.