ACI Asia Pacific reports 6.7% increase in passenger traffic

According to the latest ACI Passenger and Freight Flash reports, passenger traffic in the Asia Pacific region continued its modest upward trend in February 2013.

A year-on-year increase of +6.7% and +9.3% were recorded at airports in Asia Pacific and the Middle East respectively when compared to February 2012. This high percentage was partly due to the Chinese New Year effect as the national holidays fell in the month of February this year but in January in 2012.

Year-to-date data combining January 2013 and February 2013 traffic showed a more realistic picture of an increase of +4.3% and +11.2% in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East respectively when compared to the same period last year.

The five busiest airports in February 2013 in terms of passenger traffic were Beijing (PEK) with 6.4 million passengers, Dubai (DXB) and Tokyo Haneda (HND), both received five million passengers, Hong Kong (HKG), 4.6 million and then Bangkok (BKK), handling 4.3 million passengers.

On the contrary, air cargo traffic, due to the same Chinese New Year effect, recorded a decline of -11.8% for the month of February 2013 at Asia-Pacific airports while Middle Eastern airports remained unaffected, and recorded a +9.0% year-on-year growth.

Combining the traffic for the first two months, Asia-Pacific airports recorded a slight decrease of -0.4% over the same period in 2012 while Middle Eastern airports recorded a strong increase of +10.4%.

The top five airports with the highest cargo throughput in February 2013 were Hong Kong (HKG), handling over 248,000 tonnes of cargo, followed by Shanghai Pudong (PVG), with 186,000 tons, Dubai (DXB), 182,600 tons, Seoul Incheon (ICN), 166,200 tons and Tokyo Narita (NRT) with 137,300 tons.