Asia leads global travel growth

BANGKOK, Thailand – Asia leads the world’s growth in travel and holds seven out of the ten busiest inter-city routes. In addition to the BRIC markets, Indonesia, the Philippines and Chile showed an impressive growth, according to analysis by the market intelligence solution Amadeus Total Demand. The review looks at trends in worldwide passenger demand* between regions, countries and specific airports, comparing the full 2011 passenger volumes with 2010 data**. All figures relate to passengers travelling between a given origin and final destination airport, irrespective of the number of connecting stops.

The most important inter-regional growth patterns of last year are led by Asia. Traffic between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and North America, grew by 9%. Traffic between Asia and the Middle East grew 6% reaching 38 million travellers in the year. Compared with the previous year, 2% fewer passengers travelled between Africa and Europe in 2011; this was the only region pair with a significant traffic flow decrease over the period.

Traffic between North America and Europe remains the busiest inter-regional flow with over 60 million passengers in 2011, followed by Asia and Europe with over 53 million, and Latin America and North America with 47 million passengers.

David Brett, President of Amadeus Asia Pacific said that the global findings are a striking reaffirmation of the rapid growth in the travel industry which we are currently seeing across Asia Pacific.

“To hold seven of the world’s top ten inter-city routes all within the domestic borders of Asian countries is testament to the significant role APAC plays within the global travel market today. Amadeus is committed to delivering world-class solutions that help our customers get the most out of this expanding market and continue to grow their business.”

In terms of connecting traffic, over 50% of all passengers in the triangle between Asia, Europe and North America change aircraft at least once. On the other hand, only 7% of all passengers travelling within Asia travel with a connecting flight, compared to 10% in Europe and 31% in North America. The largest airports in Asia have a lower percentage of connecting traffic than the North American and European hubs. The average connecting rate of the ten busiest airports in Asia is 19% compared with 32% for the top ten hubs in Europe and 45% in North America.

The 2011 country statistics reveal, unsurprisingly, that the strongest growth in absolute passengers is led by the BRIC countries. China registered an additional 19 million in 2011 than 2010, Brazil, 12 million, India 8 million and Russia 6 million. Indonesia was the 5th strongest growth market with an additional 5 million passengers in 2011.

Brazil (17%), India (13%) and Russia (15%) also featured in the top ten fastest-growing countries by % growth. Chile (21%), the Philippines (15%) and Indonesia (11%) are also among the fastest growing travel markets. Egypt and Japan are among the fastest shrinking markets, probably due to the Arab Spring and the Tsunami.