Air passenger traffic to rise 29 pct by 2011 - IATA

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - Some 2.75 billion passengers will take domestic and international flights by 2011, an increase of 29 percent on the total passenger traffic in 2006, the industry body IATA said on Wednesday.

IATA, the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association, said the number of travellers taking cross-border flights would increase to 980 million from 760 million in the next five years, with average annual growth of 5.1 percent.

On domestic routes, passenger demand is expected to hit 1.77 billion by 2011, compared to the 1.37 billion who flew in 2006, due in part to expanded flight traffic inside large countries such as India and China.

"The numbers show that the world wants to fly. And it also needs to fly," IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani told a conference in Damascus, where the forecast was released.

Bisignani said the ever-increasing demand for air travel - targeted by many environmentalists as a key source of carbon emissions causing global warming - provided the industry with "an opportunity for sound investment in a green future."

But he warned that a failure by governments to plan for infrastructure improvements to meet the growing demand and to solve air traffic control problems "will have an environmental cost with inefficient use of air space and delays."

IATA, which represents some 240 companies operating 94 percent of international scheduled air traffic, opposes "eco-taxes" on airlines and says the industry is tackling its carbon emissions with investments in new, efficient technology.

Its new forecast showed that economic growth in India, China and Vietnam would fuel both domestic and international travel to and from those countries, increasing Asian passenger numbers by an average annual rate of 5.9 percent.