World airport traffic slump
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The world’s airports have seen a combined 2% year-on-year drop in passenger traffic for the third quarter of 2008, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation has reported. The Q3 results represented the first quarterly contraction since 2003.
The month of September saw bleak reading for the airport industry, with traffic falling by 4% compared to the same month last year. The effects were worst felt in Asia Pacific, which saw passenger traffic slump 6.6% year-on-year. The only region to retain growth was the Middle East, which recorded a +2.4% increase in traffic.
Across the region, airport felt the bite of falling demand. Bangkok’s Suvanabhumi airport saw traffic fall 20%, while similar declines were seen in Shanghai (-16%) and Incheon, Seoul (-13%). Taipei (-14%), Tokyo Narita (-10%) and Hong Kong (-4%) all contracted, and even Dubai saw a 5% decline in passenger traffic.
Domestic traffic presents a bleak picture across all regions (-5.4%) in September. The decline in Asia Pacific (-0.7%) is smaller than the previous month however. Domestic demand in China seems to have picked up after the Olympics with Beijing seeing a 15% rise in internal traffic.
ACI Economics Director, Andreas Schimm, said; “As the financial crisis unfolds and strikes economies around the world, airports are taking a strong hit. Overall, traffic in the first three quarters increased by just over 1%, and hopes for a quick recovery are fading. In the current economic environment, the last quarter of 2008 is rather unlikely to produce a positive result and we expect that worldwide traffic growth will remain flat for the year.”
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