Asian routes dominate global air traffic – Amadeus
The Asia Pacific region is home to eight out of the world’s 10 busiest inter-city air routes, Amadeus has revealed.
According to analysis by the travel technology company’s Amadeus Total Demand solution, the South Korean domestic route between Seoul and Jeju is the world’s busiest in terms of volume, accounting for almost 10 million passengers. Second is Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo sector, but following this, the next six places are taken by Asia Pacific routes. Third to eighth places are, in order: Osaka-Tokyo, Sapporo-Tokyo, Melbourne-Sydney, Fukuoka-Tokyo, Beijing-Shanghai and Hong Kong-Taipei. South Africa’s key Cape Town-Johannesburg sector is ninth, with Mumbai-Delhi 10th.
“To hold seven of the world’s top 10 inter-city routes (not including Melbourne-Sydney) all within the domestic borders of Asian countries is testament to the significant role APAC plays within the global travel market today,” commented David Brett, President of Amadeus Asia Pacific.
In terms of inter-regional routes, traffic between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and North America, grew by 9% in 2011. Traffic between Asia and the Middle East grew 6%.
Traffic between North America and Europe remains the busiest inter-regional flow with more than 60 million passengers in 2011, followed by Asia-Europe with 53 million, and Latin America-North America with 47 million passengers.
In terms of connecting traffic, only 7% of all passengers travelling within Asia travel with a connecting flight, compared to 10% in Europe and 31% in North America, and the average connecting rate of the 10 busiest airports in Asia is just 19% compared with 32% for the top 10 hubs in Europe and 45% in North America.
The strongest growth in absolute passenger traffic is led by the BRIC countries. China registered an additional 19 million in 2011, Brazil, 12 million, India eight million and Russia six million. Indonesia was the fifth strongest growth market with an additional five million passengers.