By EuAsiaNews,
Brussels : Air passenger traffic between the European Union and India grew by 57.2% in 2006 compared to the year 2004.
It increased by 25.6% in 2006 compared with 2005. Traffic between the EU and China rose by 38.3% in 2006 compared with 2004.
The fastest growing region in 2006 was the Indian sub-continent recording a growth of 21.5% compared with 2005, according to figures released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical bureau, this week.
This was followed by East Africa with 12.6% growth and the Near and Middle East with 9.1% growth.
In 2006, 5.1 million air passengers were transported between EU and India and the figure in the first-half of 2007 was 2.85 million passengers.
The total number of passengers transported by air between airports inside the EU and airports outside the EU reached 250 million in 2006. The increase compared with 2005 was 5%.
Of all world regions, America was the biggest partner region of the EU with 77.5 million air passengers accounting for 31% of all outside-EU air passenger traffic.
This was closely followed by Europe – other than the 27 EU member states – with 76.4 million passengers.