China will overtake the U.S. as the world's
largest aviation market, based on combined domestic and international traffic,
in or around 2022, according to a forecast by the International Air Transport
Association. Last year, IATA forecast that to occur in 2024. The change is
based on reduced growth in the U.S. and faster growth in China. IATA also
projects that the U.K., currently the world's third-largest aviation market,
will be overtaken by India in 2025 and Indonesia in 2030. By 2036, the global
air market will reach 7.8 billion passengers, nearly double the projected final
tally for 2017 of 4 billion passengers. More than half that growth will come
from the Asia/Pacific region, according to IATA.