International passenger numbers remain a key contributor to global air traffic as worldwide volumes are poised to break the 8bn mark this year, says ACI World.

“On a year-to-date basis, passenger traffic jumped 6.6% for the first half of 2017 and will undoubtedly exceed the 8 billion mark in 2017,” notes ACI World’s latest *World Airport Traffic Report.

ACI World says a short-term rise in passenger traffic – forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% per annum – owes much to the ‘irrepressible’ nature of international tourism and travel, which itself is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% over the next two years.

Domestic travel, on the other hand, is expected to climb steadily over the same period at a CAGR of 5.3% – notably in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.

DEMAND ‘IMPEDIMENTS’

However, air transport’s trade body warned that ‘impediments’ such as geo-political unrest, terrorism, threats to security and protectionism policies that act to hamper air traffic liberalisation could curtail future demand for air travel.

“In this new era of geopolitical strife and terror, coupled with the wave of protectionist rhetoric that has swept many major economies, clear downside risks have revealed themselves as we end 2017 and approach 2018,” stated ACI World Director General Angela Gittens.

“Even with the prevailing strength in consumer confidence across major economies and relatively sound economic fundamentals as our backdrop, cautious optimism should be the prevailing sentiment in our industry.”

DUBAI INTL. PAX ON TOP

As reported by TRBusiness in The Top 10 Airports Annual Report, Dubai International (83.1m) extended its position as the world’s busiest airport in terms of international passengers ahead of London Heathrow (71m) and Hong Kong International (70.1m) in 2016.

This is against the backdrop of a rise in worldwide airport passenger numbers to nearly 7.7bn (+6.5%), as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta retained its position as the globe’s overall busiest airport (combining domestic and international volumes) with 104m passengers served.

Meanwhile, India’s Bangalore Airport (22.2m; +22.5%) ranked as the fastest-growing among airports serving over 15m passengers, followed by Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh (32.5m; +22.4%) and New Delhi (55.6m; +21%).

Elsewhere, Shanghai’s Pudong International (66m; +9.8%) moved from thirteenth place to ninth place in the total passenger traffic rankings, with Los Angeles International (80.9m; +8%) jumping from seventh to fourth.

Unsurprisingly, Asia Pacific ranked highest for the number of passengers travelling through the regions (2.73bn), ahead of Europe (2bn), North America (1.8bn), Latin America-Caribbean (558m), Middle East (369m) and Africa (182m).

For a deeper analysis of regional air traffic performances and their associated effects on travel retail, watch out for the October issue of TRBusiness.

*WATR features data from over 2,400 airports in 175 countries worldwide