INTERNATIONAL. Global airport passenger traffic climbed by +4.7% year-on-year in April, with international volumes outperforming the average with growth of +5.8%. Domestic traffic worldwide rose by +4% on the same month last year. The numbers were reported this week by Airports Council International (ACI).
It puts the growth figure for the first four months at +5.6% (total traffic), with international surging by +6.6% and domestic at +4.9%.
ACI noted: “Passenger traffic continues to show resilience in the face of concerns about recession in many major European economies. While air travel has experienced an expansion in all regions, emerging markets continue to post impressive growth figures. Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East all experienced growth in the vicinity of +10% for April.”
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Major airports in Asia Pacific such as Soekarno-Hatta International and Singapore Changi posted double digit gains of +18% and +13% respectively. Relative to the emerging markets of Asia, more modest growth was observed in North America (+2.9%), Latin America-Caribbean (+2.7%) and Europe (+1.9%).
ACI World’s Economics Director Rafael Echevarne said: “The European debt problem is having a contagion effect on other economies and trading partners. Traffic volume in air freight has been curtailed not only in the economies of Europe but also in the trading hubs of North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
“Although we are seeing a slowdown in domestic passenger traffic travel in Europe, fortunately, the story is different for air travel from a global perspective. The international traveller continues to be unaffected by the potential economic contraction and spillover effects from Europe with growth reaching almost +6% in international passenger traffic as compared to April 2011.”
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