Weekly e-Newsletter for Travel & Tourism Founded in 1982 - Online Since 1995

1982 - 2007

Results for 2006 from the AAPA (Association of Asia Pacific Airlines), which includes 17 major carriers, show that a total of 134 million international passengers were carried by AAPA airlines - a new record. If domestic traffic is included in the tally, AAPA carriers transported some 270 million passengers in 2006, 18% of global passenger traffic.

The passenger load factor on international routes reached a new peak at 75.6%, up by 1.2 percentage points over 2005. For Andrew Herdman, AAPA's director general, the outlook for 2007 remains positive. Asian economies will continue to keep up the pressure, generating a higher propensity to travel in the region, he says. In total, Asia Pacific air transport represented 510 million passengers in 2006 - or 28% of the global passenger traffic.

Despite these positive figures, AAPA airlines nonetheless experienced a slowdown in growth in 2006. AAPA passenger traffic increased by 22.5% in 2004 - due to a post-SARS recovery effect - by 5% in 2005 and by 4.5% last year. The emergence of new competitors such as budget airlines is taking its toll on AAPA traffic. Low-fare and low-cost airlines have almost doubled their market share in the region in the past year, reaching close to 10% of total capacity. And more challenges lie ahead as low-cost airlines start moving into long-haul business. Jetstar in Australia, Viva Macau and Oasis Hong Kong in China have already started to fly long-haul routes in Asia. AirAsia will follow in July with flights from Malaysia to China, Australia and the UK.