Asian airlines carry 6% more passengers in 2013
Guest Writers are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the specific writer directly
Airlines in the Asia Pacific region achieved a 6% rise in passenger numbers in 2013.
According to the latest data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the region’s carriers boarded a total of 220 million international passengers in 2013, 12m more than in the previous year.
Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), the growth was 5.2% – ahead of a 4.8% expansion of available seat capacity. This allowed average cabin load factors to reach 78.2%, 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2012.
“Overall, Asia Pacific airlines recorded another year of solid growth in international passenger traffic in 2013,” said AAPA director-general, Andrew Herdman. “Regional economies slowed a little but maintained positive growth rates, while signs of recovery in Europe and a stronger pickup in the US economy led to broader improvements in business and consumer sentiment.
In terms of domestic traffic, the region’s airlines saw a 10% rise in traffic, to an estimated 740m passengers. This means that overall, Asia Pacific airlines carried close to one billion passengers in 2013.
“Given expectations of a continuing modest improvement in global economic conditions, the outlook for Asian carriers remains broadly positive,” Herdman continued. “Nevertheless, operating margins remain compressed… and other competitive pricing pressures. Airlines are responding by investing in newer more fuel-efficient aircraft, other productivity improvements, and value added service enhancements.”
Comments are closed.