KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13): The global passenger traffic for the January to November 2014 period grew 5% year-on-year (y-o-y), according to the Airports Council International (ACI).

In a statement Jan 12, ACI said that for the month of November alone, passenger numbers grew by 5.4% y-o-y.

It said airports also reported an increase of 5.6% in international passenger traffic, while  domestic passenger traffic increased by 5.4% as compared to November 2013.

The ACI said the Asia-Pacific region experienced growth of 6% in overall passenger traffic.

It added that growth in the domestic Chinese market continued to be a large contributor to growth.

It said Hangzhou (HGH), Shanghai (PVG), Chengdu (CTU) and Shenzhen (SZX) achieved double digit growth of 20%, 16%, 12.6% and 11.7% respectively.

“The region's top ranked airports—Beijing (PEK), Tokyo (HND) and Hong Kong (HKG)—posted gains of 9.1%, 5.4% and 5.5% respectively,” it said.

The ACI said European airports posted a strong November with growth of 5.7% in passenger traffic.

It said 27 of the top 30 busiest European airports recorded gains in passenger traffic.

“This represents a recovery from a weakened Euro area that persisted throughout 2013.

“Istanbul (IST) continues to report impressive double digit gains at 12.8% year-over-year for the month of November.

“Air transport demand in Madrid (MAD) and Rome (FCO) has bounced back following the weakness in these economies during the Euro area crisis. Each airport achieved growth of 9.3% and 10.6% respectively,” it said.

ACI World's Economics Director Rafael Echevarne said annual growth in passenger traffic in 2014 will end the year in the realm of 5%.

“As we look forward into 2015, we have two forces at play working in opposite directions. On the one hand, economic growth rates among certain emerging markets have diverged.

“Of the BRICS economies, we see India and China maintaining favourable growth while Brazil and Russia experience a slowdown. The Euro area continues to teeter towards a recession.

Thus, a number of downside risks remain on the horizon in 2015." said Echevarne.

He said that on the other hand, the recent decrease in oil prices and improvements in the American economy were likely to contribute positively to the continued increases in passenger numbers.

“Moreover, the boosting of world trade volumes in the latter half of 2014 has had a positive impact on the air freight market,” said Echevarne.