Growth in travel will introduce more direct air routes, report says

ACCORDING to Advito’s 2017 industry forecast report published on Skift, Asia’s growing middle class and its taste for leisure travel will result in more direct air routes in the future.

However, each country will grow at different paces, with the strongest and most rapid being India. The report says that India is surpassing China as Asia’s major success economic story, recording a GDP of seven percent.

India’s performance has contributed to a domestic growth of air travel of up to 23 percent, but fares have managed to remain the same.

On top of that, India has relaxed its 5/20 rule on airlines, which prevented airlines from launching international routes until they have operated for five years, and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft.

This had resulted in airlines like AirAsia India and Vistara expanding overseas much earlier than previously expected, which could eventually lead to a drop in air fares.

It doesn’t hurt that wealthy Indians are spending more on international air routes, leading to more sales of business class seats.

Despite a slowdown in economic growth, leisure and business travel sectors in China continue to grow. Pic: Russ Bowling/flickr

Meanwhile, China is experiencing a slowdown on economic growth despite a prosperous MICE and business travel industry. The report predicted that high-speed rail will dominate air travel in the country’s market share.

However, a strong leisure demand in China is also leading to more routes being introduced in the country. In fact, the Chinese appetite for travel looks to be stronger than ever, with over 18 million mainland Chinese crossing the borders to overseas destinations in the last three months.

Meanwhile, air capacity between the US and China has increased 38 percent over the last year, spurring cheaper access to secondary Chinese cities in each country.

Because of a skyrocketing travel demand, China was also reported to be desperate for foreign pilots with the Chinese fleet having tripled to 2,650 in the last decade.

Over in Japan, while economic growth has stalled, the weaker currency has seen an increase in foreign visitors, helping push air fares down.

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Source: travelwireasia.com