Forecasting Air Travel Demand

1   Introduction

1.1 Motivations

The air transportation industry has been experiencing a sustainable growth globally since the first civil aircraft was put into business operation in the year 1914. Nowadays, flying has become a prevailing mode for traveling with the rapid development of national economies. Especially when the traveling distance is longer than 500 kilometers, air transportation is considered as the most efficient and economical transportation mode (Özgen, 2011). Every year, more than 3 billion global air passengers and almost 40 percent of cargo (calculated by value) are transported by air. The annual total number of flights has exceeded 32 million sorties on average.

Air transportation is considered as a significant force to ...