Airport traffic growth slows in July

Airports Council International reports that passenger traffic and cargo loads continued to grow in July but at a slower rate.

ACI Director Economics, Andreas Schimm commented that, "Growth in the passenger and freight sector is likely to have peaked in the second quarter.

"As of August, passenger numbers will compare against positive growth in the reference period of 2009, whereas for freight that will only be the case from October.

"Therefore the last quarter of 2010 will see a return to more ordinary growth numbers in the single digits.

"That being said, 2010 so far has beaten expectations and the recovery is well on track.

"Regional differences remain, however, and may become even more pronounced as the development of economies in the U.S. and Europe appear increasingly uncertain and show a tendency to slow down again."

The Asia-Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions delivered the best performance, both growing by 14 per cent; and with only one airport in the sample registering a decline (Salvador -4 per cent), while Osaka was static.

ACI says that "July results in both regions were characterized by strong international passenger traffic particularly in Latin America (+25%) driven by Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

"Mainland China, Hong Kong and India continue to dominate growth in the Asia Pacific region.

"Growth of international passengers in China was stronger than domestic, whereas in India domestic traffic outperformed international."

The best performing airports in terms of international traffic were Shanghai (up 37 per cent), Beijing (up 30 per cent), Taipei (up 25 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (up 21 per cent), Hong Kong (up 18 per cent) and Singapore (up 16 per cent).

In the Middle East, Muscat led the way with growth of 25.5 per cent, while Dubai experienced growth of 14 per cent, followed by Abu Dhabi with nine per cent.

In the cargo sector, ACI reports that, "for the first time since November 2009 total freight growth was less than 20 percent. Although international freight throughput remained stronger in Asia Pacific (+23%), Europe (+22%), Latin America-Caribbean (+28%) and North America (+31%), total domestic freight tonnage rose worldwide by just 7.6 percent in July as compared to the January through July increase of 11 percent."