Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 3): Low-cost carriers (LCCs) accounted for approximately 28% of the world total scheduled passengers in 2016 and passengers carried crossed the milestone of 1 billion passengers in 2016, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

In a statement yesterday, ICAO said LCCs in Europe represented 32% of total passengers carried by LCCs, followed by Asia/Pacific and North America with 31% and 25%, respectively.

It said the increasing presence of low-cost carriers notably in emerging economies have contributed to the overall growth of passenger traffic.

Preliminary figures released by the ICAO showed the total number of passengers carried on scheduled services reached 3.7 billion in 2016, a 6% increase over last year.

It said the number of departures rose to approximately 35 million globally, and world passenger traffic, expressed in terms of total scheduled revenue passenger-kilometres (RPKs), posted an increase of 6.3%, with approximately 7.015 billion RPKs performed.

The ICAO said this growth is a slowdown from the 7.1% achieved in 2015.

It explained that over half of the world’s tourists who travel across international borders each year were transported by air.

“Air transport carries some 35% of world trade by value. More than 90% of cross border Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce was carried by air transport,” it said.

The ICAO said international scheduled passenger traffic expressed in terms of RPKs grew by 6.3% in 2016, down from the 7% recorded in 2015.

It said all regions, except for Africa and the Middle East, posted slower growth than last year.

“Europe accounted for the largest share of international RPKs with 36%, and increased by 4.3%. Asia/Pacific had the second largest share with 29%, and grew by 8%.

“The Middle East region carried 15% RPK share and recorded a growth of 11.2% compared to 2015. North America, with a 13% share, experienced the lowest pace of growth among all regions at 3.5%.

“Carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean managed 4% of world international RPKs and recorded a growth of 6.5%. Africa with a 3% share saw an improvement from 2.3% growth registered in 2015 to 5.7% in 2016,” it said.

ICAO said that in terms of domestic scheduled air services, overall markets grew by 6.2% in 2016, down from the 7.3% growth recorded in 2015.

It said that North America, the world’s largest domestic market with 43% share of the world domestic scheduled traffic, grew by 4.9% in 2016.

“Owing to the strong demand in India and China, the Asia/Pacific region, grew strongly by 10% in 2016 and accounted for 40% of world domestic scheduled traffic,” it said.

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