The global economy is undoubtedly putting the damper on commercial air travel, causing the FAA to adjust its figures for growth over the next 16 years. It will be 2021 before airlines carry 1 billion passengers, the FAA said in its annual aviation forecast. Last year’s forecast called for hitting that mark in 2016. Growth in passengers will climb each year by about 3 percent – though the agency expects a drop of about 9 percent in passenger loadings this year. Because so many carriers have cut capacity by grounding aircraft, passenger counts won’t rebound quickly once the recession ends, the FAA predicts. Once it does, the number of flight operations grows at the meager pace of 1.5 percent each year. The total number of operations will drop to about 55 million at airports this year and then slowly rise to about 68 million by 2025, the end of the 16-year forecast period.