Asia-Pacific Airports recorded 5.7% increase in 2011 passenger traffic

According to the ACI Preliminary World Airport Traffic for 2011 released on 27 March 2012, passenger traffic recorded in the Asia-Pacific region was 1.43 billion representing 5.7% increase for Asia-Pacific area and 8.4% increase for the Middle East area when compared to 2010.

Several airports in the region have achieved impressive double digit growth in 2011 due to the robust economic growth in those countries and the rising propensity to travel in the region. They include New Delhi (DEL), up by 21%, Jakarta (CGK) 19%, Bangkok (BKK) 12% and also Guangzhou (CAN), Singapore (SIN), Kuala Lumpur (KUL) all up by about 10%.

Beijing (PEK), which handled over 77 million passengers in 2011, is the busiest airport in the region and take second place in the world’s ranking (just behind Atlanta). The other 4 airports in the region with the most passenger traffic are Tokyo Haneda (HND), Hong Kong (HKG), Jakarta (CGK) and Dubai (DXB).

Freight traffic in the region, on the other hand, was not as promising as passenger traffic. Affected by the uncertainty of the world’s economy, Asia-Pacific area recorded a decrease of 1.5% compared to 2010 while the Middle-East area just a slight increase of 1.6%.

Total freight traffic carried by these 2 areas of the region amounted to 35.8 million tones in 2011, that is equivalent to 41% of the world’s total freight traffic recorded by ACI. Hong Kong (HKG) continued to be the busiest cargo airport in the world, closely followed by Memphis (MEM) and Shanghai Pudong (PVG). The other 3 busiest airports in the region with the highest freight traffic are Seoul Incheon (ICN), Dubai (DXB) and Tokyo Narita (NRT).

Commenting on the 2011 traffic results, Regional Director of ACI Asia-Pacific, Mrs. Patti Chau said “Despite all the difficult times we had in 2011, it is rewarding to see that the region has recovered and recorded a healthy and positive growth in passenger traffic comparing to 2010. It proves the resilience of our economy and the strong fundamentals of our region. As for freight traffic, although the result was not as good as we have forecasted, it is still encouraging to see that this region accounted for over 40% of the world’s total traffic and out of the 5 busiest cargo airports, 3 are in our region.”