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.

By the middle of this year, 20 percent of all business jets in the air could also be for sale, twice the rate during normal economic times. Dealers of used planes are hoping that will be the peak, and that as the year progresses, some of those planes will start selling, marking a turning point in what has been a dismal year so far for new and used aircraft sales, the Wichita Eagle reported. While there were nearly 3,000 business jets up for sale at the end of February, few of those deals are actually closing, even with prices off as much as 25 percent compared to a year ago. Many buyers are having trouble getting financing, which means some of the planes on the market may never sell. But dealers say they’re getting an increasing number of calls from interested potential buyers, and slightly fewer calls from owners looking to sell their planes. That’s a good sign, however small and anecdotal, for the industry.