The passenger aircraft fleet serving the Australia South Pacific region will grow from some 700 aircraft today to over 1,200 by 2033, with a doubling in the number of widebody aircraft.

With aviation growth comparable with other mature markets such as North America and Europe, the region has the world’s highest propensity to travel per capita.

Airbus’ Global Market Forecast (GMF) shows international traffic serving the Australia South Pacific region will grow annually at 4.5 per cent.

Traffic to and from neighbouring developing markets will grow even quicker with traffic to Asia growing at 5.1 per cent, Latin America 6.2 per cent, Africa 6.3 per cent and the Middle East 5.4 per cent, which are all well above the world average (4.7 per cent).