Double-Digit Growth in Passenger Traffic for Airports in Asia Pacific

According to the latest ACI Passenger and Freight Flash Reports, passenger traffic in the Asia Pacific region continued to show  strong and steady growth in March 2012.

A year-on-year increase of 10.8% was recorded for airports in the Asia Pacific area whereas airports in the Middle Eastern showed an even more remarkable increase of 16.4% when compared to March 2011.

Japanese airports have rebounded significantly from the negative impact of the East Japan earthquake and nuclear incident last March. Amongst the Japanese airports, Tokyo Narita (NRT) recorded the strongest year-on-year growth, with 30.3% increase, Tokyo Haneda (HND) at 28.8% and Osaka Kansai (KIX) at 20.3%.

Beijing (PEK) continued to record the highest passenger throughput in the region, with almost 6.6 million passengers. Following in 2nd place is Tokyo Haneda (HND), with over 5.8 million passengers. The other 3 airports in the top 5 list are Dubai (DXB), Bangkok (BKK) and Jakarta (CGK), all recording over 4.7 million passengers in March 2012.

The first quarter of 2012 showed a promising 9.3% and 14.9% respectively for the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions on passenger traffic when compared to same period last year.

Air freight traffic in March 2012 remained sluggish. Asia Pacific airports recorded negative percentages on both the year-on-year (-1.9%) and year-to-date (-1.3%) results. Middle Eastern airports were doing slightly better with a 0.8% increase year-on-year and 2.6% increase year-to-date.

As in February 2012, Hong Kong (HKG), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Seoul Incheon (ICN) Tokyo Narita (NRT) and Dubai (DXB) were the top 5 airports in the region with the highest air freight throughput. HKG handled over 368,000 tonnes of cargo in March 2012.

Commenting on the March 2012 traffic results, ACI Asia Pacific Regional Director Mrs. Patti Chau said, “While we are pleased to see the continuous growth in the passenger traffic in the region, especially the strong rebound of the Japanese airports, the air freight market remains a concern where the path of recovery is still unclear!”

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