THE Middle East aviation sector is expected to see a meteoric growth for the next seven years till 2014, according to a report.
Airlines in the region are expected to be the fastest growing fleet worldwide with 10.7 per cent annual growth in traffic until 2014, according to an Airbus forecast, which incorporated estimates from UK-based Global Insight Forecasting Group, the report in Gulf News said.
After that, local airline growth will soften and grow by 3.5 per cent per year until 2023, which comes second only to North America in terms of slowest growing regions, said the report.
The 20-year average for Middle East airlines, at 7.1 per cent, is higher than the world average of 5.3 per cent growth per year and second only to China, at 8.2 per cent.
However, its share of the world aviation pie will remain tiny when compared to total numbers. Despite its gains, Middle East traffic will register only five per cent of the total in 2023, dwarfed by leading airline regions Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America, each accounting for roughly 30 per cent apiece.