In the news: IATA passenger growth forecast, Accor’s Q3 financial results, HRS hotels in Sabre travel marketplace
Air passengers to top 7 billion in 20 years, IATA forecasts
China will overtake US as the world’s largest passenger market in 2030. (Image credit: Kudryashka/iStock)
The number air passengers is expected to reach 7.3 billion by 2034, revealed the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its first 20-year passenger growth forecast.
The number represents a 4.1% average annual growth in demand for air connectivity, which will result in more than a doubling of the 3.3 billion passengers expected to travel this year.
According to the report, China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest passenger market in terms of traffic to, from and within the country in 2030. However, both markets are expected to remain the largest by a wide margin.
In 2034 flights to, from and within China will account for some 1.3 billion passengers, 856 million more than 2014 with an average annual growth rate of 5.5%. Traffic to, from and within the US is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of 3.2% that will see 1.2 billion passengers by 2034 (559 million more than 2014).
Some of the key forecast (read the full report here).
Future growth trend
- By 2034 the five fastest-increasing markets in terms of additional passengers per year will be China (856 million new passengers per year), the US (559 million), India (266 million), Indonesia (183 million) and Brazil (170 million).
- Eight of the 10 fastest-growing markets in percentage terms will be in Africa with Central African Republic, Madagascar, Tanzania, Burundi and Kuwait making up the five fastest-growing markets.
- In terms of country-pairs, Asian and South American destinations will see the fastest growth, reflecting economic and demographic growth in those markets. Intra-Pakistan, Kuwait-Thailand, United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Ethiopia, Colombia-Ecuador and intra-Honduras travel will all grow by at least 9.5% on average for the next 20 years, while Indonesia-East Timor will be the fastest growing pair of all, at 14.9%.
Regional growth
- Asia Pacific: Routes to, from and within the region will see an extra 1.8 billion annual passengers by 2034, for an overall market size of 2.9 billion. In relative terms it will increase its size compared to other regions to 42% of global passenger traffic, and its annual average growth rate, 4.9%, will be the joint-highest with the Middle East.
- North America: Traffic in the region will grow by 3.3% annually and in 2034 will carry a total of 1.4 billion passengers, an additional 649 million passengers a year.
- Europe: The continent will have the slowest growth rate, 2.7%, but will still cater for an additional 591 million passengers a year. The total market will be 1.4 billion passengers.
- Latin America: The markets here will grow by 4.7%, serving a total of 605 million passengers, an additional 363 million passengers annually compared to today.
- Middle East: The region will grow strongly (4.9%) and will see an extra 237 million passengers a year on routes to, from and within the region by 2034. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will all enjoy strong growth of 5.6%, 4.8%, and 4.6% respectively. The total market size will be 383 million passengers.
- Africa: The continent will grow by 4.7%. By 2034 it will see an extra 177 million passengers a year for a total market of 294 million passengers.
Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO, said, “It is an exciting prospect to think that in the next 20 years more than twice as many passengers as today will have the chance to fly. Air connectivity on this scale will help transform economic opportunities for millions of people. At present, aviation helps sustain 58 million jobs and US$2.4 trillion in economic activity. In 20 years’ time we can expect aviation to be supporting around 105 million jobs and $6 trillion in GDP.
• The Global Passenger Forecast report, produced by IATA in association with Tourism Economics, analyses passenger flows across 4,000 country pairs for the next 20 years, forecasting passenger numbers by living standards, population and demographics, and price and availability.
Solid Q3 for Accor with revenue up 4.6%
Sébastien Bazin: Strong Q3 enables company to confirm EBIT target for 2014. (Image credit: Accor)
The Accor group reported a 4.6% increase in total revenue to €1,459 million for the third quarter of 2014, consolidating the positive trend in the first half of the year resulting in a 3.4% like-for-like increase for the nine months ending September.
The company said the reesults shodw strong demand in most of the group’s markets, particularly in the UK, Germany and Benelux, and in Europe generally.
There was slight improvement in France, especially in Paris, due to favourable trends in August and September.
Southern Europe saw faster recovery, while Africa is showing the first tangible signs of a slowdown.
Q3 revenue for HotelServices was up 2.7% like-for-like to €325 million. It reported €3.2 billion in business volume in the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 4.7% at constant exchange rates, led by the combined impact of development and growth in RevPAR.
For the quarter reviewed HotelInvest (property asset management) restructured 16 hotels, of which eight were previously leased properties and eight were owned hotels.
In the same quarter Accor opened 51 hotels or 7,529 rooms, of which 95% is under franchise agreements and management contracts. As of September 30, 2014, the HotelServices hotel portfolio comprised 3,675 hotels (or 475,713 rooms), of which 27%2 under franchise agreements and 73%2 under management contracts, including the HotelInvest portfolio.
The new hotels opened in the quarter included Pullman Panjin Oriental Ginza in China, MGallery The Lake Garden Nay Pyi Taw in Myanmar, Grand Mercure Goa Shrem Resort in India, Novotel Basel City in Switzerland, Mercure Hotel Heilbronn in Germany, Ibis Styles London Kensington in the United Kingdom, and Adagio Abu Dhabi Al Bustan in the United Arab Emirates.
Sébastien Bazin, Accor chairman and chief executive officer, said: “This strong third-quarter performance enables us to confirm the full-year EBIT target set for 2014. Obviously, we will continue to pay close attention to changes in the persistently lacklustre French market, and to the situation in Africa. The strong demand in Europe, including in Southern Europe, and in emerging markets will provide the growth necessary for HotelInvest and HotelServices to continue to implement their strategic roadmaps.”
• Read the full financial results here.
Sabre boosts hotel content with inclusion of HRS properties
Villa Prague, one of the hotels in HRS’portfolio. (Image credit: HRS)
Global hotel solutions provider, HRS, expands its global reach with the introduction of more than 50,000 of its properties within the Sabre travel marketplace.
Sabre said that with the addition of HRS content more than 400,000 of its travel agents in 144 countries are now able to shop and book the hotels.
Travel management companies that use Sabre will also gain access to the HRS Business Tariff programme, which offers up to 30% off daily room rates for over 35,000 hotels globally. Shopping and booking can be done seamlessly within an agent’s existing workflow, eliminating the time-consuming and costly need to comparison shop across different channels.
Harald Eisenaecher, senior vice president for Sabre Travel Network, EMEA, said,
“Our agreement with HRS will help them drive more sales in the corporate sector to support their international expansion, and provide travel agents and buyers with access to a wide range of the most up-to-date and best-priced travel options so they can easily find properties that match their travellers‘ needs.”
HRS CEO Tobias Ragge, added that the agreement marked an important milestone in the company’s multi-channel strategy. “Sabre’s platform enables us to significantly expand the reach of our global hotel partners, differentiate our brand and merchandise our content and products to travel buyers globally, all which help enhance our hotel bookings. Travel agencies and companies get access to a more comprehensive hotel offering and benefit from more efficient booking processes. A win-win situation for everyone.”
The new agreement will be made available to all Sabre-connected travel agencies globally including Sabre’s joint ventures Infini in Japan and Abacus in Asia-Pacific. The partnership complements the existing cooperation between HRS and GetThere.
• Featured image (airport terminal): 06photo/iStock
