Asia-Pacific airports recorded 7.1% increase in passenger traffic in May 2012

Despite continuation of the uncertainties in both European and US markets, passenger traffic in the Asia-Pacific region continued to show a strong and steady growth in May 2012. According to the latest ACI Passenger and Freight Flash Reports, a year-on-year increase of 7.1% was recorded at Asia-Pacific airports. Middle Eastern airports remained resilient to the economic downturn and demonstrated a remarkable growth of 11.5% comparing to May 2011 – a double-digit growth for 5 months consecutively.

Beijing (PEK) continued to record the highest passenger throughput in the region, with over 6.7 million passengers. Tokyo Haneda (HND), with over 5.4 million passengers, came second and the other 3 airports in the top 5 were Hong Kong (HKG), Dubai (DXB) and Bangkok (BKK), all recorded over 4 million passengers in May 2012.

Passenger traffic for the first 5 months of 2012 showed a strong increase of 8.4% and 13.2% for the Asia-Pacific and Middle East areas respectively when compared to the same period last year.

For air freight traffic, Asia-Pacific airports continued the positive trend from last month and showed a slight year-on-year increase of 1.3%, after being in the negative territory for the first 3 months of 2012, Year-to-date result from January to May 2012, however, still showed a decline of -1.5% when comparing to same period last year.

Air freight traffic at Middle Eastern airports continued to grow at a steady pace and recorded a year-on-year increase of 2% in May and 3.4% increase year-to-date.

Same as last month, the top 5 airports with the highest cargo throughput are Hong Kong (HKG), which handled over 333,000 tonnes of freight in May 2012, Shanghai Pudong (PVG), with 241,000 tonnes, followed by Seoul Incheon (ICN), Dubai (DXB) and Tokyo Narita (NRT).

Commenting on the traffic results, Mrs. Patti Chau, ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Director said, “As the engine of global economic growth, the Asia-Pacific region has once again achieved significant result in passenger numbers and remained resilient to the worldwide economic uncertainties in terms of cargo traffic. This achievement is attributed to the efforts of airports, airlines and all stakeholders in this region and proves to the world the strong potential of this market.”