Airports in Asia Pacific and Middle East Continue Robust Growth

Airports Council International (ACI) Passenger and Freight Flash Reports show that airports in Asia Pacific and the Middle East continued their robust growth in November 2012, and recorded a year-on-year increase of +6.6% and +7.0% respectively compared to November 2011, and a rebound from the dip in October 2012.

Several major airports in the region have recorded double-digit year-on-year growth including Jakarta (CGK) +14.8%, Taipei (TPE) +13.5%, Kuala Lumpur (KUL) +13.1%, Singapore (SIN) +12.2%, Seoul Incheon (ICN) +11.5%, Tokyo Narita (NRT) +11.2%, Melbourne (MEL) +10.1% and Dubai (DXB) +10.0%.

Bangkok (BKK) posted an increase of 20.6% year-on-year in passenger traffic, but this high percentage was largely due to the severe flooding in some parts of the country north of Bangkok in the last quarter of 2011. The floods affected the passenger numbers in November 2011.

Beijing (PEK) welcomed over 6.5 million passengers in November 2012 and was once again, the airport with the highest passenger throughput in the region.

The second busiest airport was Tokyo Haneda (HND), with 5.8 million passengers and the other three airports that follow were Jakarta (CGK), Dubai (DXB) and Hong Kong (HKG), recording 5.1, 4.8 and 4.5 million passengers respectively in the month of November 2012.

Passenger traffic for the period from January to November 2012 showed a strong increase of +7.2% and +11.4% for the Asia Pacific and Middle East areas respectively when compared to the same period last year.

For air freight traffic, Asia Pacific airports recorded an increase of +2.9% compared to November last year. Year-to-date result from January to November 2012, showed a slight increase of +0.3%.

Air freight traffic at Middle Eastern airports continued to grow at a slow but steady pace and recorded a year-on-year increase of +0.8% in November or year-to-date increase +2.7% for the period of January to November 2012.

The top five airports with the highest cargo throughput in November 2012 were Hong Kong (HKG), handling over 374,000 tonnes of freight, followed by Shanghai Pudong (PVG), with 257,200 tonnes, and then Seoul Incheon (ICN), 209,600 tonnes, Dubai (DXB), 200,100 tonnes and Tokyo Narita (NRT) with 172,200 tonnes. All 5 airports recorded positive growth compared to October 2011.

ACI Asia Pacific Regional Director, Mrs. Patti Chau, said, “It is encouraging to note that over 20 airports in the region recorded double-digit growth in November compared to same month last year, this number is significantly higher than in previous months. On the other hand, the grounding of Kingfisher Airlines last October has continued to bite on the then booming domestic travel market in India. Bangalore (BLR) lost 10% and Delhi (DEL) lost 20% of its domestic traffic in November when compared to November 2011. We certainly hope that the crisis with Kingfisher Airlines can be resolved as soon as possible.”