Briefing notes:
Passenger:
Indian passenger traffic – The Bengal tiger awakens
Growing rapidly in relatively short period of time, India is poised to be one of the largest aviation markets in the world in the years to come. With an astounding population base of over 1.3 billion inhabitants, the move towards a more liberalized aviation market coupled with stronger economic fundamentals has helped to awaken the Bengal tiger to become one of the fastest growing markets in the world. ACI's World Airport Traffic Forecasts predicts that the country will represent the third largest aviation market, in terms of passenger throughput, after the US and China by 2020.
Delhi (DEL), the country's busiest airport for passenger traffic, grew by 14.1% year-over year pushing it up from 22nd to the 16th busiest airport in the world. Even with this rapid growth in throughput, DEL was also ranked first in Airport Service Quality for airports above 40 million passengers per annum. The award, which is also shared with Mumbai (BOM), the second busiest Indian airport, is based on a derived score from a battery of passenger satisfaction metrics.
Calcutta (CCU), Hyderabad (HYD), Bangalore (BLR), Madras (MAA) also ranked among the fastest growing airports in the world. Year-over-year growth of 26.9%, 19.6%, 12.9% and 10.5% respectively was achieved in 2017.
Chinese passenger traffic – Aviation's center of gravity continues its eastward shift
Chinese airports are the largest contributors to both passenger traffic and air cargo volumes growth. Boasting over 10 airports with over 20 million passengers per annum each, air transport demand continues to make large strides. After Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG), Guangzhou (CAN) is the third busiest airport in China. Just shy of 66 million passengers in 2017, the airport accommodates China's burgeoning domestic market. The airport's total passenger traffic grew by 10.3% in 2017. Other Chinese airport hubs that occupy a significant proportion of domestic traffic also experienced double digit growth. Hangzhou (HGH), Xi'An (XIY), Nanjing (NKG) and Tianjin (TSN) grew by 12.6%, 13.2%, 15.5% and 24.5% respectively.
The growth of Chinese aviation has also boosted international traffic on market segments with other regions such as North America. Asian airlines continued to make important inroads on key international and trans-Pacific segments across a number of airport pairs between US cities and China especially.
Subject to capacity considerations, according to ACI's World Airport Traffic Forecasts 2017–2040, the Chinese appetite for air transport services has the potential to add an additional 3 billion passengers by 2040. This represents a 21% share of the contribution to projected global passenger traffic growth that is forecasted by 2040.
Cargo:
Given that many Asia-Pacific airports act as exporters of air cargo with North American airports acting as importers, growth in international freight traffic for each region was significantly affected by this occurrence. Both Asia-Pacific and North America experienced a jump of 11.4% and 10.3% respectively for international freight volumes in 2017. Shanghai, a major city centre for trade and business, continues to thrive. Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG), the world's 3rd busiest air cargo airport experienced an increase of 11.2% in volumes. The airport has moved up to second rank in terms of international freight volumes in 2017 after an increase of 15.2% year-over-year in volumes.
The world's largest air cargo hub continued to be Hong Kong (HKG), with a robust increase of 9.4%. This was followed by Memphis (MEM, +0.3%), which was the only cargo hub to show a modest increase among the top 20 busiest airports. The airport is home to FedEx, a major express package delivery firm. Increased competition among express delivery companies has become a reality especially due to the inroads made by Amazon, a major e-commerce firm. The company occupies strategic airports in North America such as Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), located in the Midwest for its operations. Even though Amazon's air cargo facilities will not be operational until 2020, the airport is among the fastest growing in the world in terms of air cargo volumes. CVG's freight volumes grew by 27.3% in 2017. In Asia, Alibaba also continues to seize opportunities at regional hubs. The online retail giant centers its logistical operations at airports in China and recently Malaysia.
The reliability factor and the efficiency guarantee associated with express parcel deliveries that are generated from online purchases are an important driver in the upward surge in volumes shipped by air. Moreover, there is no doubt that a temporary substitution effect away from ocean cargo in 2016 and 2017, as a result of marine industry consolidations and bankruptcies, also helped to boost air cargo volumes over the short-term.
Aircraft movements – Consolidation and efficiency:
ATL is the world's busiest airport for aircraft movements, ahead of ORD. Both airports experienced a decline of 2.1% and 0.7% respectively. The top 20 airports inched up by only 0.5% year-over-year in 2017 as compared to 2016. Though there has been weaker growth in aircraft movements especially in certain North American and European markets following the Great Recession, this is consistent with the move toward consolidated operations and a curbing of capacity by aircraft operators to increase aircraft load factors and improve yields. Adoption of larger aircraft especially for long-haul operations has also contributed to this phenomenon especially among Middle Eastern and Asian airlines.
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