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Results show consistent growth across all regions, despite the harsh winter conditions in North America and Europe, and several labour strikes that dampened results in those regions. Continental European hubs were badly affected by snow and pilot strikes leading to stagnation of international traffic in Paris and Frankfurt (both +0.1%) and declines in domestic traffic. Winter weather and a series of snow storms also severely affected domestic traffic in the U.S. (-2.1%) particularly on the East Coast. The D.C. airports reported declines of -14 percent (IAD) and -18 percent (DCA) while Baltimore lost 12 percent.
International traffic growth of was led by large airports in Hong Kong (+18%), Dubai (+23%), Singapore (+22%), Bangkok (+24%), Kuala Lumpur (+39%), Istanbul (+19%), Shanghai (+36%), Sao Paolo/GRU (+28%), Moscow/DME (+36%) and Beijing (+18%). These growth figures are based on international passengers only.
It is to be kept in mind that figures are compared against February 2009 when international traffic was down by 12 percent and traffic volumes are still 4 percent from 2008 levels.
ACI World Director Economics Andreas Schimm says, "Obviously, these figures need to be looked at with caution as the reference month was the worst month in 2009. That being said, the results remain encouraging. Also, the healthy pattern of international traffic outperforming domestic traffic has returned for the first time since November 2008. The need and desire for international travel is bouncing back and is once again set to lead the industry's growth.
" International freight maintained its exceptional growth rate in February. Massive growth as seen in the Regional Table 3, on the following pages, was in excess of 20-30 percent across all regions with the exception of Africa where freight did not collapse as drastically as in other regions so therefore has less of a spike in comparing with 2009 results.
This phenomenal growth trend reflects the strong degree of pent-up demand and the impact of re-emerging economies, particularly evident in developing nations, relative to the slump in orders, due to full inventories at the height of the crisis 12 months ago. Schimm adds, "The remarkable rebound provides evidence of the global economic recovery and should reinforce business confidence."
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Table 1: Summary Worldwide Traffic Results, FEBRUARY 2009
(% change)
|
|
|
Feb 2009
over
Feb
2008
|
YTD Jan -
Feb 2009
over YTD 2008
|
Rolling 12 months,
through
Feb
2009
|
|
PaxFlash
|
|
International passenger
|
9.3
|
7.5
|
-1.8
|
|
Domestic passenger
|
4.8
|
5.0
|
1.2
|
|
Total
passenger
|
6.8
|
6.1
|
-0.3
|
|
FreightFlash
|
|
International freight
|
30.3
|
32.0
|
-1.9
|
|
Domestic freight
|
10.2
|
11.3
|
1.6
|
|
Total
freight
|
22.5
|
23.8
|
-1.1
|
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