At its annual Aviation Forecast Conference, the FAA projected that US airlines will grow passenger capacity at an annual average rate of 3.1% over the next two decades, reaching 1.89 trillion ASMs by 2032 and 1.57 trillion RPMs by 2032, down 15.8% from the 3.8% average annual passenger traffic growth rate predicted by the agency last year.
"In the near-term we see a pause in growth followed by modest increases," said FAA executive director-aviation policy Nan Shellabarger.
System RPMs are projected to rise just 0.5% year-over-year in 2012 and passenger traffic growth rates will slowly pick up in future years.
FAA said its baseline forecast "assumes that the economy recovers from the current downturn and suffers no major mishaps such as large oil price shocks, swings in macroeconomic policy or financial meltdowns."
FAA forecasts US air traffic to grow by 3.2% a year
