Passenger traffic decelerates to 3% growth year over year in September

As a result of contractions in the domestic passenger markets of Europe and North America, global passenger traffic slowed to almost +3% for the month of September. With weak economic performance and continued uncertainty threatening the two regions, Europe and North America saw declines of -3.8% and -1% respectively in domestic passenger traffic. Major airports in the two regions such as Madrid (MAD), Dallas (DFW) and Las Vegas (LAS) saw declines of -9.5%, -3.9% and -3% respectively. On the other hand, major airports in emerging markets continue to counterbalance the slowdown from other regions with sustained demand for air transport. Istanbul (IST), Dubai (DXB), Jakarta (CGK) and Beijing (PEK) posted growth of +19.7%, +12.8%, +6.5% and +4.1% respectively.

While global freight traffic posted modest year-over-year growth for the month of September at +1.6%, the results across regions is mixed. Africa (-4.8%), Europe (-1.5%) and North America (-1.5%) all experienced declines whereas the Middle East (+6%), Asia-Pacific (+5.3%) and Latin America-Caribbean (+4.4%) achieved more robust growth figures. Of the thirty leading global freight airports in terms of traffic weighting, thirteen of them observed year-over year declines. Albeit, the top three global freight hubs of Hong Kong (HKG), Shanghai (PVG) and Memphis (MEM) all posted positive growth of +6.8%, +2.2% and +1.9% respectively.

ACI World’s Economics Director Rafael Echevarne commented, “On the whole, when we look at the last three quarters of 2012, passenger markets have remained relatively healthy despite the on-going risks and slowdown in the global economy. From January to September, overall year-over-year growth for the period was a reassuring +4.5%. Conversely, freight traffic continues to give a mixed picture from month to month. With an overall deterioration in international trade in 2012, it no surprise to see freight traffic in a sluggish state declining by -0.7% for the same period.”