According to the recently released ACI Passenger and Freight Flash Reports, Asia-Pacific airports finished the year with a strong +7.1% increase in passenger numbers while the Middle East recorded a remarkable passenger traffic growth of +12.1% in 2012 compared to 2011.
Beijing
(PEK) was the busiest airport in the region in 2012 handling more
than 81 million passengers. Second busiest was Tokyo Haneda (HND),
with 67 million passengers and the other 3 airports that follow were
Jakarta (CGK), Dubai (DXB) and Hong Kong (HKG) with around 57 million
passengers.
Many
airports in the region have recorded double-digit growth rates in the
2012 passenger traffic due to the robust economic growth in their own
countries and the rising propensity to travel in the region. These
airports include Jakarta (CGK; +14.4%), Dubai (DXB; +13.2%), Bangkok
(BKK; +10.6%), Singapore (SIN; +10.0%) and Seoul Incheon (ICN;
+11.3%).
Air
freight traffic, however, remained stagnant in 2012. A slight
increase of +0.5% was recorded in the Asia-Pacific region while the
Middle Eastern airports showed a +4.2% increase compared to 2011.
The
top 5 airports with the highest cargo throughput in the region in
2012 were Hong Kong (HKG), handling over 4 million tonnes of freight,
followed by Shanghai Pudong (PVG), with 2.8 million tonnes, and then
Seoul Incheon (ICN), 2.3 million tonnes, Dubai (DXB), 2.2 million
tonnes and Tokyo Narita (NRT) with 1.9 million tonnes.
Despite
the economic uncertainty worldwide, some airports in the region
recorded double-digit growth rates in air freight traffic in 2012.
These airports include Jakarta (CGK; +19.4%), Abu Dhabi (AUH;
+17.7%), Manila (MNL; +11.5%), Hangzhou (HGH; +10.4%) and Riyadh (RUH
; +17.0%)
Single
month passenger traffic in December 2012 for the Asia-Pacific and the
Middle East regions was +8.1% and +11.8% higher than December 2011
respectively while air freight record was -1.2% and +3.4%
respectively in the two regions.
In 2012, we are happy to see, according to the current statistics, that Beijing (PEK) has surpassed the 81 million mark in passenger traffic and is the second busiest airport in the world whereas Hong Kong (HKG) has once again, become the busiest cargo airport worldwide.“