Surges in Global passengerTraffic...

Global passenger traffic increased by over 4% for the month of February, with much of the growth stemming from international travel, which grew by 5%. The Middle East continues to maintain high increases in international passenger traffic, achieving robust growth of 8.6% year over year. DXB which is poised to become the busiest airport for international passenger traffic in 2014, experienced growth of over 11% in international traffic for the month of February.Domestic markets were more subdued as domestic passenger traffic grew by 3.5%. The world’s largest domestic market, North America, remained almost flat with respect to year-over-year growth for February (0.3%) and over a twelve-month period (0.7%). Latin America-Caribbean, on the other hand, which is also home to some of the world’s major high-growth domestic markets, saw domestic traffic rise by 12%. Brazil, which boasts a population approaching the 200 million mark, saw one of its busiest airports rise by over 16% in domestic passenger traffic in February.


The Asia-Pacific region grew only modestly with respect to international freight at 1.4% year over year. This is consistent with the overall slowdown in the Chinese economy. While HKG contracted by 1% in international freight volumes in February, the airport has seen international volumes rise by 2.2% over a twelve-month period. PVG has also experienced modest growth at 1.4% over the same period.

With a more favorable outlook in economic growth and global trade, European air freight markets appear to have resurfaced once again, posting an overall gain of 3.9% in total freight traffic. AMS, CDG and FRA each posted gains of 8.7%, 4.9% and 3.4% respectively.