ASIA PACIFIC/MIDDLE EAST. Passenger traffic was up +6.3% year-on-year in Asia Pacific airports in May, but fell -4.5% in Middle Eastern airports, according to Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific.
In Asia Pacific, India led the way with strong +13.3% growth. The upward trend in passenger traffic has slowed compared to last year, ACI Asia-Pacific noted. The domestic sector reported the lowest growth since November 2017, at +15.5%. Top volume drivers for the month in India were: Bangalore (+25.5%), Delhi (+8.6%) and Hyderabad (+27.3%).
Passenger traffic growth in China slowed to +8.2% for the month, which ACI Asia-Pacific said was sustained by solid domestic demand of +7.11%.
Six Chinese airports were among the top ten in Asia Pacific generating the highest domestic passenger volume increase. Of these, the top three were: Beijing (+6.8%), Shenzhen (+10.8%) and Nanchang (+46.2%).
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Passenger traffic growth slowed in many other countries in Asia Pacific, which ACI Asia-Pacific attributed to the earlier start of Ramadan this year. Both Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta recorded declines of -2.7% and -2.6% respectively.
ACI Asia-Pacific described results in the Middle East as mixed. The earlier timing of Ramadan also likely contributed to slowing growth at the region’s three major hubs: Dubai (-3.8%), Doha (-23.6%) and Abu Dhabi (-12.9%).
Kuwait and Muscat airports continued to report positive growth, at +18.2% and +6.9 respectively.
