IATA Asia Pacific member external relation assistant director Kelvin Lee said on Tuesday that the growth of the middle class in Indonesia and Southeast Asia was making the region a hotspot for air passenger market growth over the next two decades, surpassing conventional markets such as Europe and Northern America.

“We see that the Asia Pacific will become the region where air travel is expected to grow very strongly and ASEAN plays a key role in the strong growth,” he said in an online webinar held by Malaysia-based think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS).

IATA expected the Asia-Pacific region to have a 4.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next 20 years, far above the traditional aviation industry market of Northern America and Europe, which is estimated to see a CAGR of 1.6 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

China is also projected to surpass the United States in becoming the world’s biggest air passenger market in 2039, while India is set to jump to third place that year from fifth place in 2019, the organization’s data shows.

According to the World Bank’s “Aspiring Indonesia: Expanding the Middle Class” report, Indonesia’s middle-class population has expanded over the last 15 years from just 7 percent of the population to 20 percent currently, with 52 million Indonesians currently belonging to the group.

Despite the burgeoning middle-class population, Indonesia saw an 18.54 percent year-on-year (yoy) decline in domestic air passengers last year to 76.7 million people, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data.

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