(Reuters) - The number of travelers flying on U.S. airlines is expected to grow by about 50 percent in the next two decades, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA forecast on Monday that U.S. airlines will carry 1.14 billion passengers by 2035, up from an estimated 756.3 million last year, assuming in part that U.S. real gross domestic product grows on average by 2.4 percent per year in that time.
Likewise, the FAA expects the number of miles traveled by paying passengers to grow an average of 2.5 percent a year to 1.44 trillion in 2035.
Driving the growth, passengers to and from the United States on U.S. and foreign carriers are projected to increase 4.7 percent in 2015 and more than double by 2035, the report said.
It said travel to and from Latin America is growing the fastest, at 4.4 percent per year. The Asia-Pacific region, where U.S. airlines are fiercely competing, followed closely at 4.3 percent annual growth.