Bangkok--25 Oct--Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its annual five-year traffic forecast, explaining that the near future will provide enhanced opportunities for passenger traffic growth, but also challenges to the global industry’s precarious health. It also further highlighted the growing importance of the Asia Pacific region for the global aviation sector. IATA predicts that the industry will see international traffic growth post average annual gains of 5.1% over the period 2007-2011. Although respectable, this figure is down on the 7.4% annual hikes in the recently concluded 2002-2006 period, as slowing global economic growth will begin to take a bite out of demand for air transport. The association noted that the 5.1% figure, which is actually 0.3 percentage points higher than the forecast IATA submitted for 2006-2010, owes much to the positive effects of the trend towards greater liberalisation governing international air services. This trend will help create considerable growth in the number of city pairs connected by direct services, as well as the number of frequencies and seats allowed on existing routes. Both developments are heavily correlated with traffic growth. IATA sees better growth in the world’s domestic markets, with 5.3% added to the figures every year, up from the average rate of 4.4% that the industry recorded in 2002-2006. These rises will largely be on the back of the fast-growing India and China domestic markets, which will continue to respond to the twin thrusts of deregulation and economic growth. The trade group sees China’s combined passenger figures recording annual increases in the order of 8.8% (up 0.7 points on its forecast for 2006-2010) and India 8.6% (also up 0.7 points on IATA’s previous predictions). With these two countries — the fifth and sixth fastest growing worldwide, respectively — leading the way, it is no surprise that Asia Pacific is tabbed to have the second highest growth figures over the course of the forecast period. The Middle East is expected to bring larger annual increases to the table. However, the existing traffic base in that region is less than 10% as large as that of Asia.