Airports in China handled 23.5% of global air cargo volumes from 2015 to 2016, Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world's airports, said in its latest edition of World Airport Traffic Report. The country also contributed 21.6% to the overall increase in global passenger traffic and 27.6% in aircraft movements.
Airports located in emerging and developing Asia are among the fastest growing in the world, the report said. Passenger traffic and air cargo volumes have increased 10% and 5.6% on an annualised
basis from 2006 to 2016.
In 2016, airports located in ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) saw traffic jump 12.8% and 4.2% respectively as compared to the previous year.
ACI's Emerging Aviation Market Index, which tracks 19 high growth emerging markets that have a significant critical mass of passenger and air cargo throughput, accounts for 38.5% and 33.9% of
global traffic respectively.
China is leading the pack
Countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam have achieved double-digit growth on an annualised basis since 2006. And they are poised to grow even more in the future as subject to
infrastructure capacity considerations. Similarly, countries like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey, home to global connecting hubs, have experienced exponential growth in under a
decade.
The top three contributors to global air cargo volume growth by country share are the People's Republic of China with an increase of 986,000 metric tonnes representing a share of 23.5% of the
global increase. The second largest contributor is the U.S. with an increase of 671,000 tonnes and a share of 16%, followed by Qatar with an 303.000 tonnes increase, representing a share of 7.2%
of the global increase.
Nol van Fenema