ACI Reports Preliminary Airport Traffic Data for 2010

Worldwide industry body Airports Council International (ACI) has reported its preliminary traffic information for 2010, showing positive growth in both the passenger and cargo sectors. The statistics show that passenger traffic grew by 6.3 per cent to 4.6 billion when compared with last year, cargo tonnage increased 15.2 per cent to 82 million metric tonnes and aircraft movements were up 0.8 per cent to 64 million. The preliminary data covers over 900 airports across the globe, accounting for around 93 per cent of traffic and will be updated in July when the last of its airports’ reports are released. This was highlighted in a statement from Angela Gittens, World Director, ACI, who confirmed that overall figures will pass the five billion passenger figure. “Last year underscored the resilience of the air transport business and resulted in over 5 billion annual passengers for the first time ever. It also pronounced the shift and divergence in growth across the regions - while North America and Europe have struggled to reach pre-crisis passenger volumes, Asia-Pacific, Latin America-Caribbean and Middle East sustained a strong momentum and gained market share through double digit growth,” she said.

The data highlights that monthly passenger growth worldwide in 2010 was consistently high - between 5 per cent and 10 per cent - with the exception of a significant setback in April due to the volcanic ash cloud that hit Europe particularly hard. Another anomaly impacting traffic mainly in Europe was the unusually harsh winter weather in December. Despite these setbacks Europe still registered growth of 4.3 per cent in 2010 thanks to strong international summer and autumn traffic.

A slow economic recovery and restraint of air carriers in adding domestic capacity has led to modest growth in North America of 2.4 per cent, acknowledged ACI, keeping passenger numbers below pre-crisis levels in that region. Asia-Pacific has benefited from a 14.2 per cent rise of international passengers resulting in a total increase of 11.5 per cent. Latin America-Caribbean enjoyed strong domestic traffic growth particularly in Brazil and other Latin American countries as national economies and low-cost carriers have expanded quickly. International traffic was also important in Africa, which registered 8.8 per cent more passengers. In the Middle East the total was up 11.5 per cent.

Source: Airports Council International preliminary data 2010

Of the ten largest airports in the world, Beijing Capital International was the fastest growing with passenger traffic up 13 per cent to 73.8 million. This has seen it overtake London Heathrow as the second busiest, while Chicago O’Hare also surpassed the UK gateway, pushing it down into fourth place. The London airport was actually one of only two facilities in the top thirty to report a decline in traffic (0.2 per cent), the other being Las Vegas McCarran International in 22nd place, where traffic was down 2.9 per cent. Outside of the top ten, Dubai International leaped up to 13th place thanks to a 15.4 per cent increase in traffic, while Shanghai Pu Dong (27.2 per cent) and Jakarta (18.4 per cent) both reported healthy increases. Charlotte Douglas in the US was the only airport in the top 30 outside of Asia and Middle East to report double-digit growth with a 10.4 per cent rise in numbers.

Source: Airports Council International preliminary data 2010

The industry recovery was more coherent and comprehensive in the freight sector where all regions showed a robust double digit increase led by Asia-Pacific (+18.6 per cent) and Europe (+17 per cent). International freight was the driver of the air freight recovery as total tonnage jumped by 20.5 per cent compared to 2009. Looking in greater detail at the freight sector, Hong Kong International has now overtaken Memphis as the world’s busiest cargo airport. The US facility did see a growth in cargo tonnage of 5.9 per cent in 2010 but all other top 15 freight airports saw double digit rises, some seeing loaded and unloaded cargo increase by as much as a third against the previous year. These figures clearly show that the industry is rebounding, but it must be remembered that 2009 was one of the worst years for the sector and so the percentage increases are artificially high.

Across the world cargo volumes increased by 15.2 per cent in 2010 to 82 million tonnes. Hong Kong, like most other Asian airports, reported a strong growth, with cargo carried up 23.2 per cent to 4.1 million tonnes. This was achieved thanks to a general growth in exports and imports from China with Guangzhou Baiyun, Shanghai Pu Dong and Shenzhen also seeing significant rises; the latter being the fastest growing facility in the cargo market over the year. Interestingly every airport in the top 30 reported a rise in cargo tonnage, with Tokyo Haneda reporting the lowest increase of 1.9 per cent. Paris Charles De Gaulle remains the busiest cargo airport in Europe, although a stronger growth at Frankfurt has seen it close the gap to just 100,000 tonnes. Dubai International has also continued its dramatic growth with a 17.8 per cent rise to 2.2 million tonnes.

Source: Airports Council International preliminary data 2010

In terms of aircraft movements, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson remained the busiest airport in the world despite a small decline (-2.1 per cent) in numbers. Aircraft take-offs and landings increased the most in Latin America-Caribbean (+6.2 per cent), Middle East (+6.1 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (+5 per cent) while movements continued to decline in Europe (-0.4 per cent) and North America (-1.2 per cent).

“Passenger and freight growth clearly surpassed global GDP growth in 2010. GDP growth projections for this and the coming years are high creating a positive outlook for demand for air transport. This underpins the need to continue to expand and modernise airport infrastructure to maintain high standards of efficiency and customer service. More than ever, airports will be asked to finance these projects autonomously without public funds requiring private and public airports to be empowered to generate necessary returns on their investment,” added Angela Gittens.