The Airports Council International (ACI) of Asia Pacific announced that in October 2016, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East reported passenger traffic increase at 8.4% and 3.8% respectively, year over year.

In Asia-Pacific, domestic passenger travels continued to stimulate growth in India with many airports reporting passenger traffic increase in excess of 20% YoY. Top runners include Calcutta (CCU) with an increase of 37.7%, Goa (GOI) 24.4% and Bangalore (BLR) 23.6%.

In China, while still primarily a domestic market, many airports are actively pursuing growth in international passengers. Kunming (KMG) led the pack in October 2016 with overall passenger increase at 15.4% followed by Xi’an (XIY) 15.1% and Tianjin (TSN) 14.8%.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuala Lumpur (KUL) maintained its momentum of recovery from a period of slow growth since 2014 and delivered an increase at 14.6%. Hong Kong (HKG) was the only major hub in the region recorded a decline of -0.8% in October 2016, largely caused by one-off flight reduction arrangements to accommodate the airport’s transition to a new air traffic management system.

The pace of passenger traffic growth in the Middle East appeared to be slowing down against the backdrop of a more challenging market environment. Dubai (DXB), the largest hub in the region, recorded 2.7% more passengers YoY whereas Doha (DOH) remained in leading position delivering growth at 16.7%.

Regarding air freight, despite global trade growth remaining weak, in October 2016 both Asia-Pacific and Middle East continued the strong performance in recent months and generated an increase of 10.2% and 11.5% respectively.

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Asia-Pacific, ME airports, pax up by 10% & 12% in September 2016
Airports Council International (ACI) released the September 2016 traffic report for Asia-Pacific and Middle East . In September 2016, Asia-Pacific and Middle East delivered passenger traffic increase at 9.8% and 11.9% respectively. For the year-to-date, both Asia-Pacific and Middle East grew 10%.
 

In Asia-Pacific, the surge in volume in October 2016 was contributed in part by the strengthening of the international freight market. In addition, the gaining popularity of e-commerce in the region may have given further stimulus to air freight as it plays an increasingly important role in the e-commerce chain. The top three freight hubs all delivered robust increase, Hong Kong (HKG) 7.1%, Shanghai Pudong (PVG) 11.3% and Seoul Incheon (ICN) 10.6%.

The Middle East also appeared to be gathering momentum going into the fourth quarter, air freight volumes in October 2016 at all major hubs reported substantial gains, Dubai (DXB) 9.5%, Doha (DOH) 21.5%, and Abu Dhabi (AUH) 6.7%.