Research from ForwardKeys showed that air travel grew by 9.6% in Asia Pacific last year followed by a 5.8% increase in Europe.

North America saw growth of 4.4% in air departures during 2018 while African traffic increased by 5.2% and there was a rise of 2.8% in the Middle East.

Europe was particularly boosted by a 7% increase in short-haul international travel within the continent while trips outside Europe were up by 2.8% with Europe-Middle East traffic growing at 5.8% in 2018.

Olivier Ponti, vice-president insights at ForwardKeys, said: “The travel and tourism industry continues to grow strongly, outstripping the growth in global GDP, enhancing prosperity and creating jobs.

“Yet another year of strong growth in air travel will put pressure on governments worldwide to invest in infrastructure to better manage the consumer’s growing appetite to travel.”