INTERNATIONAL. Global passenger traffic grew +5.4% year-on-year in July and +5.8% in the first seven months of 2016, Airports Council International (ACI) has reported.
The July growth consisted of a +7.4% rise in international traffic and a +3.8% domestic increase.
Middle East and Asia Pacific airports reported the strongest year-on-year growth, at +15.3% and +11.6% respectively. Europe (+3.9%) and North America (+2.3%) followed, while the recessionary Africa and Latin America-Caribbean regions reported a -0.4% decline and a marginal +0.7% increase respectively.
In terms of international traffic, the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions reported comparable growth rates of +15.7% and +14.6% in July, while the year-to-date figures were lower at +10.3% and +11.1% respectively.
Airports in the USA reported total passenger traffic growth of +1.9%, in China it was +7.2%, and in Japan +4.0%. Korea and India remained the growth leaders in Asia Pacific with double-digit growth rates of +37.4% and +23.0%. Spain maintained recent momentum with +11.1% growth.
ACI also noted a number of airports that achieved a high level of absolute growth in July: Incheon (+44.4% or +1.63 million passengers); Dubai (+14% or +0.93 million passengers); Delhi (+23.3% or +0.89 million passengers); Doha (+27.5% or +0.75 million passengers); and Jeju (+35.2% or +0.72 million passengers). The high growth rates at both Korean airports were due to the recovery of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in 2015, the organisation said.
