Robust traffic at Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports

Robust traffic at Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports

The general view of domestic departure at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. (Bangkok Post file photo)
The general view of domestic departure at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok. (Bangkok Post file photo)

Asia-Pacific and Middle East airports posted the world's most robust growth in passenger traffic in 2016.

Passengers passing through airports in the two regions jumped 9% and 9.4% respectively from the previous year, according to newly released figures from the Airports Council International (ACI).

The industry body said overall passenger traffic growth in both Asia-Pacific and the Middle East remained buoyant.

Domestic traffic grew at a fast pace in India, whereas air carriers in China actively pursued international expansion, said ACI.

Furthermore, low-cost carriers spurred demand in various markets as competition with full-service carriers intensifies. These factors are expected to support passenger growth into the first quarter in 2017.

In terms of air freight, the overall growth trajectory continued in 2016 in both Asia-Pacific and the Middle East with growth of 4.5% and 5.8%, respectively.

For 2016, overall air freight growth in Asia-Pacific recovered steadily starting in June, accelerating gradually towards year-end, the ACI said.

The increase was driven mainly by international air freight demand.

In the Middle East, after a slow third quarter, overall air freight growth picked up in the fourth quarter.

Doha remained the bright spot, where robust monthly growth was consistently above 20% in the fourth quarter.

ACI did not release figures of the passenger traffic and freight tonnage pushed through the two region's airports.

The group's statistics were based on preliminary figures from 579 airports in 48 countries in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, ACI said India continued to hold the top spot in Asia-Pacific for December 2016, reporting a significant increase in passenger traffic over the same period the previous year driven by robust domestic passenger travel.

Airports with the highest growth for December 2016 were Chennai at 49.9%, Kolkata at 31.9% and Bengaluru 22.2%.

In China, both international and domestic travel reported solid increases. The top airports were Kunming at 15.6% growth, Guangzhou 12.9% and Chengdu 12.7%.

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