World Airport Traffic Report 2010

Director General of ACI World, Angela Gittens today announced the publication of ACI’s World Annual Traffic Report for 2010. “This annual Report is ACI’s flagship publication, a unique and comprehensive industry reference presenting data from over 1,300 airports in 157 countries. The Report for 2010 documents a strong rebound from the two-year industry slump. Global passenger traffic rose by 6.6 per cent, topping the 5 billion passenger mark for the first time. Cargo volumes also hit a record, surging past 91 million tonnes with 15.3 per cent growth. Once again, our industry has shown its resiliency in recovering from a downturn and resuming its historical trajectory of impressive growth.”

2010 – Key statistics in brief

1,318 airports located in 157 countries report that:

• Worldwide airport passenger numbers increased by 6.6% in 2010 to 5.04 billion, registering increases in all six regions
• Middle East (+12%), Asia-Pacific (+11.3%) Africa (+9.5%) and Latin America-Caribbean (+13.2%) showed high growth while Europe and North America grew more robustly
• Worldwide domestic traffic increased by 5.8% while international traffic jumped by 7.7%
• Worldwide aircraft movements increased 1.1% to 74 million
• Total cargo volumes handled by airports jumped by 15.3% to 91.0 million tonnes
• 69% of airports worldwide registered positive passenger growth at an average of 8.6%, while 30% of airports lost traffic at an average rate of -4.1%.

Gittens observed, “While ACI welcomes the industry’s rebound, these numbers underscore the urgency of the airport capacity challenge. Airport operators worldwide are focusing on the need to provide the passenger a positive, seamless travel experience, and planning new capacity to meet the expected doubling of passengers in the next 15 to 20 years. More than ever, governments and our airline partners will need to work closely with our airports to ensure that the required capacity is added in a safe, secure, efficient and sustainable manner. At the same time, air navigation systems will need to be upgraded to keep pace with the growth curve.”

Commenting on the regional trends, Gittens said, “Traffic growth in emerging markets led the way. The Latin America-Caribbean region, fueled by strong growth in Brazil, steered all regions with a 13.2 per cent increase over 2009. The Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions also experienced double-digit growth, with Africa just below them at 9.5 per cent. In the Middle East, liberalized bilateral agreements and large increases in fleet capacity drove growth, particularly in the UAE and Qatar. In Asia-Pacific, India’s traffic grew nearly 15 per cent and China’s nearly 14 per cent, as the region once again increased its global market share. Increases in the mature North American and European markets were 2 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively; but they remain the number 1 and 2 regions for market share, although Asia-Pacific is rapidly closing the gap.”

2012 Outlook

Preliminary ACI statistics received just before press time showed global passenger traffic up 6 per cent for the first six months of 2011. Commenting on the prospects for the remainder of the year, ACI World’s Director of Economics, Andreas Schimm, noted, “Strong global economic growth in the latter half of 2011 should propel our sector to another good year. But even against the backdrop of growth, there is considerable uncertainty about oil prices, concern over sovereign debt, volatility in exchange rates, and in the US, slowing growth and persistent unemployment. All told, there is a lot to worry about, particularly in the developed economies. Growth in emerging and developing nations, however, is expected by the IMF to continue at a rapid clip, giving us considerable reason for further optimism about the remainder of the year.”

Related documents

ACI releases World Airport Traffic Report 2010