SOUTH KOREA. Led by a robust recovery at Incheon International, South Korea’s airports posted solid growth in passenger traffic in September, according to analyst Air4Casts. This follows a turbulent summer period when the market was hit hard by the impact of the MERS virus, with Chinese traffic falling sharply.
Incheon traffic climbed by +5.5% year-on-year in September, though it has some way to go to reach the double-digit gains from earlier in 2015, noted Air4Casts. Busan Airport reported +20% growth, though Seoul Gimpo remained “in negative territory” at -5%. However, this contrasts with a -25% drop in June traffic. Jeju was off by -14% compared to a year ago in September but this remains an improvement on the -55% fall in August and -83% drop in July.
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Busan and Incheon lead the recovery, but other locations are yet to bounce back from the MERS crisis |
The analyst also presented findings through to August on Chinese traffic, which is critical for the health of the Korean travel retail business.
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A comparison of Incheon and Jeju airports month on month |
In the early part of the year Incheon represented over 50% of all arrivals of Chinese nationals into the country. By August this was down to 42% but the September figures indicate that “ground is being recovered,” said Air4Casts.
The key indicator, it noted, is the percentage of Chinese among all Incheon arrivals. In the strongest part of this year it was between 6.6% and 7.5%. More recently, in August it was 4.9% while the likely outcome for September will be closer to 6.6%.
Air4Casts said: “If that holds good then the China count through Incheon in September will come in at over a quarter of a million which will represent, at last, a substantial improvement on 2014.”
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