Airports Council International has reported April’s global airport passenger numbers up by 3.4%, as international passenger growth came in at +3.8%, while domestic returned a +3.3% result.

 

Reported all together for the first four months of 2016, total passenger traffic grew by a healthy +6.2% compared to the same period last year.

 

ACI said that passenger traffic declines in Africa and Latin America-Caribbean (-6.8% and -3% respectively) contrasted with more modest growth of 2.4% in North America and Europe. More dynamically, both the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions continued as the two major driving forces of passenger traffic growth, with 7.3% and 9.7% growth respectively.

 

The global airports association also pointed to continuing passenger declines in Africa, with Egypt and Tunisia in particular experiencing passenger drops of -31.2% and -13.7% respectively – both due to aviation security concerns.

 

ASIA REMAINS STRONG

More happily all major markets demonstrated robust growth in passenger traffic in the Asia-Pacific region. China, Japan and India – the three largest aviation markets – also grew by 6.4%, 4.9% and 17.5% respectively. At the same time, Australia, Thailand and Korea also demonstrated robust growth of 4.3%, 10.9% and 7.4% respectively.

 

By contrast, Indonesia remained stagnant with only 1.5% growth, the result of traffic losses at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (CGK). At the airport level, the highest growth was observed at Delhi (DEL, +20.8% or +764,000 passengers), Tokyo-Haneda (HND, +9.7% or +534,000 passengers) and Nanjing (NKG, +28.5% or + 492,000 passengers).

 

Significant growth was also observed in Bangkok-Don Mueang (DMK, +17.9% or +450,000 passengers), Shanghai-Pudong (PVG, +8.2% or +411,000 passengers) and Singapore (SIN, +9.2% or +402,000 passengers).

 

Turning to Europe, ACI said: “Spain, at 7% growth in passenger traffic, is approaching traffic levels at the two major aviation markets in Europe, the United Kingdom and Germany, which grew by 1.1% and 3% respectively during the same period.

 

 

MIXED BAG IN EUROPE

“Major airports in France grew by 5.4% in terms of total passenger traffic, while Italy remained flat (0.1%), and Turkey and the Russian Federation lost 3% and 4.4% of their traffic respectively.

 

“At the airport level, significant growth was observed at Amsterdam (AMS, +10.1% or +480,000 passengers), partly due to traffic transfer from Brussels, Barcelona (BCN, +8.7% or +291,000 passengers) and Berlin-Schönefeld (SXF, +34.2% or +229,000 passengers).

 

“Brussels (BRU), which was affected by the terrorist attack on 22 March 2016 lost almost half of its passenger traffic in April (-46.6% or -935,000 passengers).”

 

Meanwhile, there was no good news in Brazil – the largest aviation market in Latin America and the Caribbean – as it lost 13% of its traffic on a year-over-year basis, testifying to the sharp contraction in that economy.

 

 

MEXICO SHINES AS OTHERS WANE

Mexico remained the only strong and stable source of passenger traffic growth (+5.8%) in the region, while Colombia slowed down to 2.1% growth, comparable to that seen in Argentina (+1.7%).

 

In Chile, where the economy has grown faster than forecast, passenger traffic grew strongly by 7.3%. At the individual airport level the highest growth was observed at Santiago (SCL, +8.7% or +111,000 passengers), Mexico City (MEX, +3.5% or +108,000 passengers) and Lima (LIM, +7.1% or + 92,000 passengers).

 

In the Middle East, all major aviation markets demonstrated robust growth. Passenger traffic in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar grew by 7.5% and 20.2% respectively. Doha (DOH) continued to maintain momentum and it is now the fastest-growing airport in the region (+20.2% or +507,000 passengers), followed closely by Dubai (DXB, +7.2% or + 468,000 passengers).

 

Meanwhile, the US and Canada grew by 2.5% and 0.7% respectively in terms of total passenger traffic. ACI says that ‘notable growth’ was observed at Los Angeles (LAX, +6.2% or +367,000 passengers), Seattle (SEA, +11.2% or +361,000 passengers) and Atlanta (ATL, +3.5% or + 295,000 passengers), while New York-La Guardia (LGA) lost 10% of its traffic (-241,000 passengers).