The Asia Pacific region is a key growth driver for Australia’s largest airline Qantas, its CEO Alan Joyce said on Monday.
Qantas has increased its capacity in the region partly because more tourists from Asia are heading to Australia, he said.
The International Air Transport Association said that Asia Pacific is set to drive the biggest growth for air travel with “more than half the total number of passengers over the next 20 years” coming from the region.
The Asia Pacific region is a key growth driver for Australia’s largest airline Qantas, its CEO said on Monday.
Qantas has increased its capacity in the region partly because more tourists from Asia are heading to Australia, Alan Joyce told CNBC’s “Squawk Box. ”
“Ten years ago, when I took over as CEO, we had one-third of a capacity to Europe, one-third to Asia, one-third to the Americas. Today, it’s 8 percent to Europe, it’s 52 percent in this region, and I think it will grow a lot further into the future,” he said. “We see the Asia Pacific market as the huge growth opportunity for us.”
When an airline raises its capacity, it usually refers to an increase in the total number of seats made available to passengers, either by adding more flights or using bigger planes.
Joyce pointed to a recent prediction from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in October that said current trends in air travel suggest that the total number of passengers travelling by air could double to about 8.2 billion by 2037.
IATA said the “Asia-Pacific region will drive the biggest growth with more than half the total number of new passengers over the next 20 years” coming from the region due to a combination of factors such as strong economic growth, increased household incomes and favorable population and demographic profiles.
“This region is going to grow by an average of 4.8 percent. We think Qantas is well-positioned to take advantage of that,” Joyce said…
