Beijing Airport busiest airport in Asia
The Asia Pacific region has recorded a positive 5.7 percent growth year on year in passenger traffic in 2011, according to a new report.
The Airport Council International (ACI) world traffic report found that the Middle East area also recorded an 84 percent increase year on year, however freight traffic in the region did not perform as well with Asia Pacific posting a decrease of 1.5 percent compared to 2010 and the Middle East recording a small increase of 1.6 percent.
Despite the weak result in freight traffic the total freight traffic in the Asia Pacific and Middle East area is equivalent to 41 percent of the world’s total freight recorded by the ACI.
According to the ACI, Asia Pacific’s busiest airport is Beijing which is second in the world’s ranking behind Atlanta, following behind is Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Dubai airport.
Following strong economic growth and an increase in travel to the region some airports achieved double digit growth, including New Delhi 21 percent, Jakarta 19 percent, Bangkok 12 percent, plus Guangzhou, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur up by about ten percent.
ACI Asia-Pacific regional director Mrs Patti Chau said in light of the hardship endured during 2011, it was good to see the region has recovered and is recording positive passenger traffic.
“It proves the resilience of our economy and the strong fundamentals of our region,” Ms Chau said.
“As for freight traffic, although the result was not as good as we have forecasted, it is still encouraging to see that this region accounted for over 40percent of the world’s total traffic and out of the five busiest cargo airports, three are in our region.”