Passenger traffic at airports in the Asia Pacific region increased 5.1% year-on-year in September 2012, according to the latest data from Airports Council International (ACI).
The growth was mainly driven by international traffic, which climbed 6.9%, while domestic passenger numbers rose 4.1%.
The strongest growth was seen at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Seoul Incheon airports, which saw traffic increase 12.3% and 11.2% respectively. Beijing Capital continued to be the busiest airport in the region with almost 7.1 million passengers, followed by Tokyo Haneda (6.4m), Jakarta Soekharno-Hatta (4.8m) and Hong Kong International (4.4m).
“The traffic growth of +5.1% in Asia-Pacific is in line with the forecast in the recently published ACI Global Forecast for 2012–2031 where ACI forecast that passenger traffic will grow by 4.1% per annum over the next 20 years,” said ACI’s Regional Director for Asia Pacific, Patti Chau. “Also, Asia Pacific, led by China and India, is expected to be the fastest growing region and will surpass Europe to be the largest aviation market by end of 2012. The potential for domestic traffic is very high in Asia Pacific, since several economies in the region are emerging economic powerhouses with vast territories and relatively limited alternative forms of transport,” she added.
For the first nine months of the year, Asia Pacific’s airport traffic has now increased 7.7% compared to the same period in 2011, with international traffic growth (+9.7%) outpacing domestic (+6.6%).
