Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

Air transport service has become an indispensable source of long-distance transport for businesses and leisure travelers and for high-value, low-volume products. The significance of this transport service as a driver of economic growth is made abundantly apparent when examining the interdependence of business and air transport growth in Asia. Business activity in Asia ranks as the highest worldwide with Asia-Pacific attaining a 40 percent share of the global exports (APTIR, 2016). While loosening of restrictions on international investment and ratification of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement by many of the region’s economies have contributed to their trade dominance, access to affordable air transport service has also played a vital role in the region’s economic development. Indeed, just for the month of July in 2017 Asian air carriers transported 20 million tons of cargo, representing two-fifths of world air cargo traffic (Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA, 2017).