Low-cost growth drives Asian air travel
Asia is leading the growth of global air travel, driven by the rise of low-cost carriers.
These are the major findings of a new report by Amadeus, which found that both global air travel growth and the increase in low-cost travel in Asia exceed all other global regions.
Overall, the report from Amadeus Air Traffic Travel Intelligence found that worldwide air traffic volumes grew 5% in 2012. In Asia however, the growth rate was 9% – by far the highest of any region, with Latin America (+6%) the only other continent to exceed the global average.
And while lost-cost carrier penetration remains highest in the traditional European and North American markets, Asia is experiencing the strongest growth rates. Asia saw the highest growth in terms of low-cost carrier market share in 2012, increasing 2.1 percentage points to 18.6%. While this remains significantly lower than the 38.0% penetration seen in Europe and 30.2% in North America, the growth of budget airlines in Asia is clearly having a significant impact.
Perhaps partly due to this growth of low-cost carriers, the study found that Asia is the market with the highest level of airline competition. Seventy-five percent of the region’s air traffic is operated by three or more airlines and 27% by five or more airlines. This contrasts sharply with other regions, such as the Middle East and Europe, where just half of all air traffic on its routes is operated by three or more airlines.
“This data provides good news for the airline industry, showing that passenger air traffic has increased in every region of the world from 2011 to 2012,” said Pascal Clement, Amadeus’ head of Travel Intelligence. “As in 2011, this growth is led by Asia, however the data points to a further opportunity in the region, where the majority of traffic is on a small number of busy routes.”
The analysis also shows that 22% of all global air travel is concentrated on just 300 so-called ‘super routes’, each of which carries more than one million passengers annually. Further demonstrating the strength of Asian aviation, eight of the top 10 ‘super routes’ are located in the Asia Pacific region. The Korean route of Jeju-Seoul (10.2 million passengers) is first, followed by Sapporo-Tokyo (8.2m). Other Asia Pacific routes in the top 10 include Beijing-Shanghai (+7.2m), Melbourne-Sydney (6.9m), Osaka-Tokyo (6.7m), Fukuoka-Tokyo (6.6m), Hong Kong-Taipei (5.5m) and Okinawa-Tokyo (4.6m).
In terms of connecting air traffic, the report highlighted the rising impact of the Middle East and a transit point. When taken as a group the three airports, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai now serve approximately 15% of all air traffic volume operating between Europe and Asia.