Passenger traffic across world’s 20 busiest airports climbs +5.2% in 2017

INTERNATIONAL. Passenger traffic across the world’s 20 busiest airports grew by +5.2% year-on-year in 2017, according to Airports Council International (ACI).

The top 20 airports served near 1.5 billion passengers in 2017, representing 17% of global passenger traffic, stated ACI’s preliminary report on the world’s most travelled airports.

The survey, based on results from 1,202 airports worldwide, found overall passenger traffic increased +6.6% in 2017. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson secured top spot with almost 104 million passengers. The airport is within a two-hour flight of 80% of the United States’ population.Beijing Capital International came in second place and Dubai International remained in third position. As a major connection point for long-haul international flights, Dubai is also the world’s busiest in terms of international passengers. Total passenger traffic at Dubai International grew +5.5% in 2017. The top ten airports for global passenger traffic remained unchanged from 2016 rankings.

International numbers

Global international passenger traffic surged +8.4% with Dubai International (+5.6%), London Heathrow (+3%), Hong Kong International (+3.4%), Amsterdam Schiphol (+7.7%) and Paris Charles de Gaulle International (+5.5%) airports leading the rankings. International traffic increased by +5.2% across the top 20 airports last year.“The surge in cargo volumes and passenger numbers across many of the world’s airports is testament to heightened business and consumer confidence, at least in the short term,” said ACI World Director General Angela Gittens. “The world’s airports continue to be a vital link in the economic multiplier effect that aviation provides and the role it plays as an enabler for global commerce is growing.

Online retail and e-commerce is threatening airport retail, says ACI World Director General Angela Gittens

“The universal access to online retail and e-commerce platforms represents a competitive pressure to the traditional bricks and mortar retail shops in certain markets but the huge growth in e-commerce has fuelled the air cargo side of the airport business. This has resulted in increased global activity, especially in major markets such as China and the US.”

Gittens added: “The spectre of uncertainty regarding trade policy among major economies comes at a time when global commerce and our industry has recently thrived. The trans-pacific link, for instance, is an important ingredient in boosting international passenger traffic and international freight volumes.

“Connecting people, business and places still remains paramount to the aviation sector despite the recent threats of a step backwards in market liberalisation in some major economies.”

Rising in the East

Indian and Chinese airports are major contributors to growth, according to ACI. Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (+14.1% year-on-year) jumped from 22nd to 16th place, making it one of the fastest-growing airports in the world for passenger traffic. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China grew by +10.3% making it the second fastest-growing airport among the top 20.

India, where passenger traffic has grown rapidly in relatively short period, is poised to be one of the largest aviation markets in the world, ACI noted. Factors contributing to growth include its population of over 1.3 billion people, the move towards a more liberalised aviation market and stronger economic fundamentals. ACI’s World Airport Traffic Forecasts predicts that the country will represent the third largest aviation market, in terms of passengers, after the US and China by 2020.

ACI ranked Delhi first in Airport Service Quality for airports above 40 million passengers per annum in 2017. The award is shared with India’s second busiest airport Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International.

Calcutta Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International, Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International, Bangalore Kempegowda International, and Chennai International Airport 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.

India is poised to be the third largest aviation market in the world by 2020, says ACI

Chinese airports are the largest contributors to both passenger traffic and air cargo volumes growth, said ACI. The country  has ten airports with over 20 million passengers per annum each. Guangzhou Baiyun is the third-busiest airport in China with almost 66 million passengers in 2017. It accommodates China’s burgeoning domestic market as well as international traffic.

Other Chinese airport hubs that occupy a significant proportion of domestic traffic also experienced double-digit growth. Hangzhou  Xiaoshan International, Xi’An Xianyang International, Nanjing Lukou International and Tianjin Binhai International airports grew by +12.6%, +13.2%, +15.5% and +24.5% respectively.

The growth of Chinese aviation has also boosted international traffic in other regions such as North America. Asian airlines continued to increase key international and trans-Pacific routes in 2017, between China and the US specifically, according to ACI.

Subject to capacity, the Chinese appetite for air travel has the potential to add 3 billion more passengers by 2040, according to ACI’s World Airport Traffic Forecasts 2017–2040. This represents a 21% share of projected global passenger traffic forecasted by 2040.

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