Air travel helps drive economic growth and prosperity and brings the people of the world closer together. Since 1980, air travel - measured in revenue-passenger-kilometres - has grown at an annual rate of approximately 5%. This trend is expected to continue, especially in markets such as China, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America, where a growing middle class has the means and desire to travel. To meet this passenger demand, Boeing has forecast that the commercial aircraft fleet will double in size over the next 20 years. Continuing growth in the aviation industry is good news economically, as air transport supports an estimated 56.6m jobs and about 5% of global-gross domestic product. Boeing understands that environmental leadership and innovation are crucial to the long-term sustainable growth of the travel, tourism and commercial aviation industries. At the same time, the company also recognises that the aviation industry has a responsibility to grow sustainably. Today, air transport accounts for about 2% of total man-made CO_2 emissions, a figure projected to grow to about 3% by 2030 without further action to reduce our industry's environmental impact.
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