Global Airport Traffic Remains Flat: ACI

Preliminary traffic results for 2008 show that for the full year, worldwide passenger traffic remained flat, thanks to strong growth in the first quarter which balanced the year-end Decemberline, whereas year-end results in the freight sector, which did not benefit from any significant surge in traffic during the year, retracted in 2008 (international freight -3%, domestic -7% and the worldwide average -4.5%).
For the month of December 2008, global passenger traffic growth fell by 6 percent as compared to December 2007, as did international and domestic traffic.
The top 10 international airports all reported Decemberlines led by Bangkok (-42%), London Gatwick (-14%), Incheon (-13%) and Tokyo Narita (-10%). Dubai was the only exception registering a 5 percent increase, and the only region on the rise was the Middle East with a 7 percent increase in international traffic.
Domestic passenger traffic results were buoyed by China where the large airports showed double-digit increases once again led by Beijing (+22%), but the strong increase in China was offset by continued weak performance in India and the US where the large airports (Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and the New York City airports) suffered double-digit reductions.
European domestic traffic (-12%) was strongly impacted by the Spanish market, with Madrid and Barcelona reporting reductions of 19 percent and 24 percent respectively.
Freight traffic was heavily impacted by the devastating global economic climate in Decemberember 2008, with worldwide freight down by 20 percent, international freight by 25 percent and domestic by 9 percent.