Latin America’s commercial aircraft fleet will double in size over the next 20 years, and 2,570 new aircraft will be needed to satisfy traffic growth, according to Airbus. The Airbus Global Market Forecast predicts 2,030 single-aisle and 540 wide-body aircraft will be needed at a cost of US$350b. The numbers are based on traffic growing at 4.5% per year, the world average, until 2035. Traffic is predicted to grow by 4.9% on Latin America’s domestic and intra-regional routes, and 3.8% to destinations outside the region. The continuing rise in middle class spending will play an important part in the growth, with that section of the population growing to half a billion people by 2035. “There’s no doubt that solid long-term growth is in store for Latin America, and we see single-aisle aircraft leading the demand,” Airbus’s Latin America president Rafael Alonso said. He said that low cost carriers will have an impact on market dynamics, especially in domestic and intra-regional travel. “Looking ahead, we also see a good opportunity for the region’s carriers to be more bullish on developing intra-regional routes, a space in which Latin America is less developed than other regions,” Alonso added.<br/>
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You think you have a travel story from hell? Try this one: The inaugural flight from Berlin’s new international airport is almost five years late, and no one can say when it might take off. The airport’s planned launch in June 2012 was scrapped a month before its unveiling because of fire safety issues, and it’s since been pushed back three times. With costs piling up at E13m a month, the operating company in March saw the departure of its third chief in four years. The black eye for Germany’s exalted engineering prowess threatens to undermine a tourism boom in Berlin, and there’s talk of scrapping a plan to shutter Tegel, one of the city’s existing airports. “This airport should have been a world-class showpiece for Germany,” says Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, which has long sought to introduce service to Berlin. “It’s an embarrassment.” The bill for Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt—most people call it BER—has more than doubled, to some E5b, since construction began in 2006. And the delayed opening has wounded local restaurants as well as airlines Air Berlin and Lufthansa, which had expected to expand routes from the capital. Instead, Germany’s biggest city has fewer overseas flights than Düsseldorf (with less than a quarter of Berlin’s population). Once BER opens, it may already be too small. It was designed to accommodate 27m passengers annually—ample for the 18m arrivals in Berlin in 2006. But last year, Tegel and the city’s other functioning airport, Schönefeld, handled 33m passengers. And BER will have 118 check-in counters, about 80 fewer than the combined number at Tegel and Schönefeld. <br/>
The body of Kim Jong Nam, half-brother to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the victim of a bizarre murder at Kuala Lumpur airport, is expected to leave by plane on Thursday, media reports and an aviation industry source said. Kim's body was believed to be on Malaysia Airlines flight MH360 to Beijing, en route to North Korea, that was currently preparing for take off, media said. "It is planned for...but not sure if (it's) happening," said the aviation industry source, when asked if the body would be flown out on Thursday. The release of the body by Malaysia - which recently imposed a ban on North Korean nationals leaving the Southeast Asian country - was arranged to secure the return of nine Malaysians stranded in Pyongyang after North Korea imposed a travel ban on Malaysians leaving its borders. Malaysian police say Kim was killed on Feb. 13 by two women who smeared super toxic VX nerve agent on his face at the Kuala Lumpur budget terminal.<br/>
An Australian man plunged four floors to his death at Bangkok's busy Suvarnabhumi Airport Thursday morning. Surveillance cameras showed that the man, aged 32, took the escalator from the third to the fourth floor before the incident took place at 6.25am. Medical staff tried to revive the man and he was taken to Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, according to the Bangkok Post, but he died from his injuries. Local police believe the man jumped from from the fourth floor and that the incident was one of self-harm. The airport had installed 2.5 metre high glass walls inside and outside the terminal after past similar deaths. Kittipong Kittikachorn, the airport's safety manager, has ordered engineers to consider erecting additional safety walls.<br/>