AIRLINES

Boeing Predicts Sharp Increase in Air Travel: The collapse of the Soviet Union and greater stability in the Middle East will lift the worldwide airline industry from bust to boom, Boeing Commercial Airplane Group predicted. Passenger air travel will nearly triple, and $857 billion worth of jetliners will be delivered by 2010, according to Current Market Outlook, an annual publication of Boeing’s commercial jet division. The main prediction in the forecast, which extends five years longer than the outlook of a year ago, is for 5.5% annual growth in revenue passenger miles through 2000 and 5% from then to 2010.