Air travel in region grows

 By HENRY PAMBUAI

PAPUA New Guinea is well-placed to take advantage of the increasing number of air travellers in the Asia-Pacific region, an Airport Council International (ACI) representative says.

ACI Asia Pacific Economics Committee secretary Suzanne Tong said it was exciting times for the aviation industry in the region as Asia Pacific easily accounted for the most number of passengers worldwide in 2014.

“In 2014 we had about 33 per cent of the world’s passenger traffic and we’re still growing very nicely, so we’re in an exciting region,” Tong said.

“The region also accounted for 40 per cent of the world’s cargo (in air transport), so it really is exciting times for us.”

Tong said of the 58.1 million jobs supported by the industry worldwide, over 24 million of those were in Asia Pacific and 1.7 million in small island nations like PNG.

“The air transport industry supports over 24 million jobs in Asia Pacific and it is estimated that 1.7 million jobs are created for small island states, so it is quite a big number for smaller nations,” she said.

“This means there is employment in the aviation industry.”

National Airports Corporation managing director Joseph Tupiri said the programme was developed to address issues of smaller airports globally that operated in a smaller and more challenging environment.