Passenger Traffic Slows to 2.3% Growth in October as Air Freight Stagnates

Global passenger traffic showed only modest gains for the month of October.


While emerging markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin America-Caribbean and the Middle East all posted gains of over +5%, the economic slowdown in North American and European markets resulted in almost no change in year-over-year passenger traffic. Adding to this fact, many major North American airports along the eastern seaboard were temporarily crippled by Hurricane Sandy. Miami (MIA), New York (JFK) and Newark (EWR) all faced declines of -3.2, -3.8 and -8.3% respectively, which was attributable mainly to the hurricane. On the other hand, a few key internationalairports in emerging markets continue to have buoyant traffic increases helping to maintain a global growth trend in positive territory. Singapore (SIN), Istanbul (IST) and Jakarta (CGK) continue to experience double-digit growth rates.  

According to the World Trade Organization, the expansion of world trade will slow to 2.5% in 2012 as a result of slowing global output, which is down from 5.0% in 2011. With an overall slowdown in the movement of goods across borders, international air freight has contracted by -1.2%, while total freight remains flat. Several major international freight hubs experienced sharp declines in air freight traffic. Major hub airports such as Incheon (ICN), Paris (CDG) and Anchorage (ANC) observed year-over-year declines of -1.9, -5.0 and -13.1% respectively. Conversely, the volume of domestic freight traffic, has increased by +1.8% in the month of October.

ACI World’s Economics Director Rafael Echevarne commented, “As we approach the end of 2012, global air freight traffic is expected to be flat as compared to 2011. Order shipments of high value added goods, which make up a large component of the volume of international air freight, have been curtailed in tandem with the slowdown in international trade. While passenger traffic shows signs of deceleration, this is in line with ACI expectations for the year. That being said, Hurricane Sandy has impacted the overall growth trends for the month of October. Regardless, it’s impressive to see the overall global resilience of passenger traffic in spite of the Eurozone crises, fiscal cliffs and other economic uncertainties among which airports operate.”
 

Table 1: Summary Worldwide Traffic Results, October 2012 (% change)
	September 2012 Over September 2011	Year to date 2012	12-month rolling year
PaxFlash
International passenger	3.1	5.2	5.1
Domestic passenger	1.7	3.4	3.4
Total passenger	2.3	4.2	4.2
FreightFlash
International freight	(1.2)	(1.2)	(1.0)
Domestic freight	1.8	0.8	1.1
Total freight	(0.3)	(0.4)	(0.5