Worldwide passenger traffic up 6.7% in August

Gavin Lipsith

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

ACI's August PAX Flash shows a return to single-digit growth as the distortion caused by last year's SARS epidemic begins to subside

August passenger traffic at the world's major airports grew by 6.7% year-on-year, according to the monthly PAX Flash from Airports Council International (ACI). The figure is significantly less than the 11% growth recorded in July and suggests that the period of high year-on-year growth posted as a result of last year's SARS crisis is coming to an end.
 
Year-on-year growth in Asia/Pacific was down to 9.9% compared to 21.5% last month, although the passenger numbers recorded were very similar, owing to the fact that air travel in the region had begun to recover from the effects of the SARS epidemic by August 2003.
 
The removal of SARS as a distorting factor may have also affected the worldwide figures, as August showed a return to single-digit growth for the first time since February.
 
Traffic at Middle East airports grew by 11.6% year-on-year, North American traffic by 7.5%, Latin America by 6.7%, Africa by 7.6% and Europe by 4.4%.
 
ACI surveyed a total of 99 airports in August.