Passenger traffic at airports in the Asia Pacific region continued to grow strongly in 2012, according to Airports Council International (ACI).
In its full-year report, released today (18 February 2013), ACI revealed that Asia Pacific airports handled a combined total of 1.07 billion passengers last year, 7.1% more than in 2011. The growth was driven by international passenger traffic, which increased 9.4% year-on-year to 431.8 million, while domestic passenger numbers climbed at a slower rate of 5.4%, to 637.6m.
“The positive results of 2012 confirmed the 2012 to 2031 forecast recently published by ACI that the Asia Pacific region will grow at a steady 6-7% increase in passenger traffic until 2031. The report also forecasted global passenger traffic to grow at 4.1% per annum over the next 20 years and Asia Pacific will become the largest aviation market in the world,” said Patti Chau, Regional Director of ACI Asia Pacific.
Beijing Capital International Airport was once again the busiest airport in the region in 2012, handling more than 81m passengers, with an average of 6.75m per month. Second busiest was Tokyo Haneda with 67m passengers, followed by Jakarta Soekharno-Hatta and Hong Kong International, both with around 57m passengers.
Asia Pacific’s major airports also provided some of the world’s fastest expansion, with Jakarta (+14.4%), Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (+10.6%), Singapore Changi (+10.0%) and Seoul Incheon (+11.3%) all seeing double-digit growth last year.
Despite this growth however, Asia Pacific still only provides three of the world’s 10 busiest airports. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport remains the busiest, followed by Beijing, London Heathrow, Chicago O’Hare and Tokyo Haneda. Jakarta is 10th, behind Los Angeles, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Dallas-Fort Worth. Hong Kong is 12th, Bangkok 14th and Singapore 16th.
Globally, the world’s airports handled almost 4.11bn passengers last year. Asia is currently the third largest global region, handling 26.1% of total airport traffic, behind Europe (29.9%, 1.23m) and North America (29.5%, 1.21bn).
