OTTAWA, January 3. /TASS/. The number of passengers carried by airlines last year reached a record of 3.7 bln people, a source in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) told TASS.

"The number of passengers carried by regular flights of all global airlines increased 6% last year compared with 2015," the source said. The total number of flights went up by 6.3% in the reporting period to around 35 mln. "More than half of tourists bound for international trips, were carried by airlines," he added.

According to ICAO, Europe was the biggest air transport market in 2016 with 36% of all flights (6.3% increase), followed by the Asian-Pacific Region (29%, 8% increase), Middle East (15%, 11.2% increase), North America (13%, 3.5% increase), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%, 6.5% increase), Africa (3%, 5.7% increase). Earlier the Organization’s experts projected a more than 2-fold increase of flights by 2030. Also, they said, the number of people carried by airlines would exceed 6.4 bln people annually.

Operating profit of airlines totaled $60 bln in 2016 (versus $58 bln in 2015) due to a decrease in fuel prices, the source in the International Civil Aviation Organization said.