Airports in Asia-Pacific recorded slower growth in passenger traffic than those in the Middle East in this year's first quarter, reflecting the latter's rising importance as a new air transport hub.
Passenger traffic through Asia-Pacific airports including Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi from January-March rose by 6.4% year-on-year compared with 12.6% in the Middle East, said the Airports Council International (ACI).
Middle East airports including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha also outperformed Asia-Pacific in terms of air cargo traffic over the period by rising 9.8% compared with a 1% drop in Asia-Pacific.
The ACI did not release overall passenger numbers or cargo tonnage for the period.
Beijing was the busiest airport in Asia-Pacific with close to 20 million passengers in the first quarter, up by 4.8% quarter-on-quarter, said the ACI.
Dubai was the busiest in terms of international passenger traffic, handling 16.5 million passengers, an increase of 15.6% from a year before.
Other airports recording double-digit growth in the first quarter include Kuala Lumpur (11%), Seoul Inchon (11.5%), Kunming (21.7%), Hangzhou (12.8%), Xiamen (14.5%), Osaka Kansai (19%) and Abu Dhabi (15.9%).
Despite the stagnant overall result, some airports in the region recorded double-digit growth in air cargo traffic for the first quarter.
They include Dubai, which processed 584,800 tonnes (15.8%), Beijing (10.6%), Abu Dhabi (22.5%), Hangzhou (15.8%) and Xiamen (15.4%).
The Asia-Pacific airport with the highest cargo throughput for the period was Hong Kong, handling 942,000 tonnes of cargo, up by 1.6% year-on-year.
For the whole of last year, passenger traffic through Asia-Pacific airports rose by 5.8% year-on-year versus 12% in the Middle East.
In terms of freight, Asia-Pacific's tonnage was 0.3% higher, while in the Middle East it leaped 5.7%.