Toronto, Dec 19 (IANS/EFE): The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has reported passenger air traffic increased by 5 percent this year and the volume of air cargo by 4.6 percent in comparison to 2013.

In a statement, the Montreal-based ICAO said Thursday that in 2014, 3.2 billion people used air transport for travel and it expects that the number will double to 6.4 billion by 2030.

Preliminary figures released by ICAO reveal that in 2014 there were 33 million takeoffs by airplanes, surpassing the previous record in 2013 by 1 million.

The air transport of cargo, expressed in freight tonne-kilometres, grew by 4.6 percent in 2014, whereas in 2013 the growth was only 0.4 percent.

ICAO also said that solid global economic growth and improvement in world trade fuelled the rise in passenger traffic, expressed in terms of revenue passenger-kilometres or RPKs, increasing by 5.9 percent, compared to a 5.5 percent increase in 2013.

The Asia-Pacific region was the largest market for passenger air traffic, accounting for 31 percent of the RPK, followed by Europe with 27 percent and North America with 25 percent.

The Middle East accounted for 9 percent despite the market registering a 12.8 percent growth.

Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for 5 percent of air traffic, registering a growth of 5.9 percent, while Africa grew by 2 percent and contributed 1.5 percent to the RPK.

International air traffic grew by 6.3 percent, above the 5.7 percent in 2013, while domestic air traffic increased by 5.1 percent.

Global air transport capacity, expressed in available seat-kilometres, registered a 5.7 percent increase, the report said.