Middle East airports led the growth rate in global aviation, with traffic in the first six months of 2010 up 18.4 per cent over the same period in 2008 (pre-crisis), data released by Airports Council International (ACI) shows.
Major Middle Eastern airports handled 46.3 million passengers in the first six months of 2010, over 7 million more than the 39.1 million passengers they handled in the six months to June 30, 2008.
At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region has leapfrogged Europe and North America to become the world’s leading aviation market in the first six months of this year.
According to latest data from ACI, the leading Asia-Pacific airports handled close to 500 million passengers in the first half of 2010, up 11.5 per cent over the same period in 2008.
ACI World Director of Economics Andreas Schimm said: “North America and Europe remain well behind their respective 2008 pre-crisis levels whereas the other regions have emerged stronger.”
Traffic at the leading European and North American airports fell 7.3 and 7.7 per cent, respectively, over H1 2008, with North America slipping to third place.
Worldwide passenger demand was up 8 per cent year-on-year in June 2010, maintaining the “positive momentum” established in the preceding months. International passenger growth contributed strongly with a rise of over 10 per cent and domestic traffic grew by 6 per cent.
ACI noted a “further acceleration” in the Asia Pacific region, “driven notably by international traffic in China, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.”
Asia-Pac’s place at the top of the world rankings is also confirmed by the latest OAG airline capacity data for August 2010 which also shows North America has fallen to third place, with combined domestic and international capacity of 99 million seats, falling behind Asia-Pac with 109.6 million seats, and Europe with 105.5 million.
ACI’s Schimm added: “Overall, the global industry in the first half was still almost one per cent down compared to the pre-crisis period due to the significant declines in the major regions Europe and North America.
“The impact of the volcanic ash crisis on Europe’s declining 2010 results further exacerbated the slow return of European international traffic to pre-crisis levels, but it does not overshadow the structural change in the markets of the air traffic industry.
It is the strong growth in the domestic markets in China and Brazil that have shifted the balance.”
Simultaneously, global air freight continued to grow by over 20 per cent for the seventh month in a row.
June 2010 results show that major international freight hubs Dubai, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Miami and Incheon grew by more than 25 per cent compared to 2009.
Comparing to early 2008, total freight tonnage worldwide in the first six months surpassed tonnage shipped in the first half of 2008, the period before the economic crisis took hold. International freight is the driver of this growth, according to ACI, with Middle East and up by 21.5 per cent.