Steady growth in traffic for Asia Pacific airports in April

Monday, 18 June 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

According to the latest ACI Passenger and Freight Flash Report, passenger traffic at airports in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions continued to show steady growth in April 2012.

A year-on-year increase of 9.5% was recorded for airports in Asia Pacific, while passenger traffic at airports in the Middle East increased by 10% over the same month in 2011.

Beijing (PEK) continued to record the highest passenger throughput in the region, with over 6.7 million passengers. Tokyo Haneda (HND), with over 5 million passengers came second and the other three airports in the top five were Hong Kong (HKG), Jakarta (CGK) and Bangkok (BKK), all recorded over 4.6 million passengers in April 2012.

Passenger traffic for the first four months of 2012 showed a promising 9.3% and 13.4% increase for Asia Pacific and Middle East areas respectively when compared to the same period last year.

For air freight traffic, Asia Pacific recorded a year-on-year decline for the second consecutive month, at -3.1% in April 2012. Year-to-date result from January to April 2012 showed a decline of -1.6%. However, the Middle Easter remains resilient to the economic downturn in other parts of the world, where positive trend continued with a 4.9% increase year-on-year and 3.8% increase year-to-date.

Hong Kong (HKG), which handled over 337,000 tonnes of freight in April 2012, was the airport in the region with the highest throughput. Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Seoul Incheon (ICN), Dubai (DXB) and Tokyo Narita (NRT) were the other four airports in the top five list for cargo throughput.

ACI Asia Pacific Regional Director Patti Chau said, “Although air freight in Asia Pacific still suffers from the impact of the worldwide economic uncertainties, it is encouraging to see that air freight in the Middle East as well as passenger traffic in both the Asia Pacific and Middle East areas continue to grow at a steady pace. This growth is in line with the ACI Global Traffic Forecast issued in 2011.”