By the Numbers: Air Travel in Southeast Asia

The data driving Asia
The airline industry in Southeast Asia has boomed in recent years as a result of rapid economic growth and a rising middle-class. Low-cost carriers have captured a large part of the emerging air travel market by offering a variety of new flight routes throughout the region. With the economic opening of Myanmar in the past two years, Southeast Asia is now more interconnected than at any time in the past four decades. We examine the expansion of air traffic in the region by the numbers:

3,080

The number of airplanes that must be purchased between now and 2032 in order to meet the expected increase in demand for air travel by citizens in the Asia Pacific. The majority of this traffic is expected to take place within the region.

200,000

The number of pilots that must be trained by 2030 to fly the region’s travelers. Southeast Asia’s middle-class, estimated to balloon to 1.7 billion by 2030, will continue to drive demand for air travel as they fly for business and leisure.

30

The number of airports in Myanmar that need upgrading for the 4.2 million travelers that passed through them in 2013, up from 3.6 million in 2012. A consortium led by South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation won a $1.1 billion contract in August to build a second international airport to serve Yangon, to be completed in 2018.

Passengers departing Changi International Airport in Singapore. Changi is a major regional hub in Southeast Asia. Source: Choo Yut Shing's flickr phosotream, used under a creative commons license.

Passengers departing Changi International Airport in Singapore. Changi is a major regional hub in Southeast Asia. Source: Choo Yut Shing’s flickr phosotream, used under a creative commons license.

16 million

The projected passenger capacity of a planned terminal at Singapore’s Changi Airport. The new terminal is designed to help the regional hub efficiently handle 82 million passengers a year.

29

The total number of Indonesian airports that will open to the ASEAN Open Skies agreement, which aims to make all the region’s international airports available to carriers from all 10 member states by 2015. Many airports in Indonesia are already heavily congested, with Jakarta’s Sukarno-Hatta international airport operating at more than double its capacity, and authorities have not openly welcomed the agreement.

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1 comment for “By the Numbers: Air Travel in Southeast Asia

  1. Paul Marshall
    January 8, 2014 at 10:20

    Not to mention the need for reasonably priced short-haul cargo equipment and carriers locally and regionally.

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