New analysis from Amadeus Air Traffic Travel Intelligence solution reveals that worldwide air traffic volume grew five per cent between 2011 and 2012, with Asia being the most important, fastest-growing and best marketplace for air travel.
The solution – which gives comprehensive passenger volume data, including both direct and indirect sales of airline seats – shows that Asia experienced year over year growth of nine per cent between 2011 and 2012, followed by Latin America, at six per cent.
The tool, portion of the Amadeus’ Travel Intelligence portfolio, calculates probably the most accurate air passenger volume for any origin and destination worldwide.
Among other key findings, the study reveals that 22 per cent of all global air travel is focused on just 300 origin and destination ‘super routes ’, each of which carries over 1,000,000 passengers annually.
Furthermore, 69 per cent of all global air travel is made on major routes with 100 thousand annual passengers.
In terms of connecting air traffic, the analysis shows the center East as a robust performer, with the 3 key airports of Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai all showing high connecting traffic volumes.
For instance, when taken as a set the 3 airports now serve roughly 15 per cent of all air traffic volume that goes from Asia to Europe and from Europe to the South West Pacific.
Furthermore, Europe-Asia traffic routed via the center East is growing at roughly 20 per cent each year.
The analysis also shows Asia because the market with the top airline competition, 75 per cent of the region’s air traffic is operated by three or more airlines and 27 per cent by five or more airlines, making this a region with an exceptionally intense competition in all its air travel routes.
This contrasts sharply with other regions comparable to the center East and Europe where just half all air traffic on its routes is operated by three or more airlines.
Analysis of the busiest routes on earth by passenger volume shows that seven out of the tip ten world’s busiest air travel routes are in Asia.
Jeju-Seoul in South Korea remains the world’s busiest air route, and plenty of of 2011’s top origin and destination routes return to the league table for 2012, however, there was some change: specifically, Beijing-Shanghai has risen from seventh-busiest route on the earth in 2011, to fourth-busiest in 2012.
Sapporo-Tokyo has overtaken Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo to second-busiest route ranking, and Okinawa-Tokyo has entered the tip ten, as ninth-busiest route on this planet.
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Some 35 per cent of air travel in Europe and North America is made on smaller routes with fewer than 100 thousand annual passengers.
This contrasts sharply with other regions equivalent to Asia where 85 per cent of air travel is targeted on routes that carry over 100 thousand passengers annually.
This concentration of Asian air travel suggests the region’s growth may continue as there’s a chance for airlines to develop secondary links beyond the heavily competitive super routes.
In addition, the analysis shows that during Asia, the bigger routes with over 100 thousand annual passengers have a four to nine per cent growth range, however the smaller and medium sized routes within the region are growing at approximately 19-21 per cent every year.
Globally, the airline industry has become consistently more competitive during the last three years.
The percentage of air traffic served by only one or two airlines has fallen by two per cent every year from 39 per cent in 2010 to 35 per cent in 2012.
Concurrently, the share of air traffic with four or more competing airlines has also risen consistently from 35 per cent in 2010 to 38 per cent in 2012.
Asia is the market with the best competition between airlines on this planet, with three quarters of air traffic volume served by greater than three airlines and just a quarter of air traffic served by one or two airlines.
This contrasts strongly with other regions, as an instance in Europe 45 per cent of air traffic volume is served by only one or two different airlines and inside the Middle East 50 per cent of all air traffic has just one or two competing carriers.
The highly competitive nature of air travel in Asia could be because of the high concentration of passengers on a comparatively low variety of ‘super routes’, where several airlines vie for dominance.
The rise of inexpensive airlines have been significant over the last decade, but this have been largely limited to conventional markets.
Today, Europe has the best concentration of LCC traffic, representing 38 per cent of total air travel in 2012.
The South West Pacific and North America regions even have significant LCC penetration, with 37 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
However, in markets where air travel is growing most strongly, LCCs’ respective share of overall air travel remains at modest levels – within the Middle East LCCs represent just 14 per cent of all air travel, in Asia 19 per cent and Latin America 25 per cent.
Within specific regions, the spread of LCCs varies strongly.
In Europe, Spain has the best share of departing LCC traffic at 57 per cent, followed by the united kingdom where 52 per cent of all originating air travel is now made on competitively priced airlines, up four per cent from 2011 and passing the 50 per cent milestone for the primary time.
Despite the low overall share of low-priced air travel in Asia, some countries have bucked this trend, for instance 65 per cent of all air travel within the Philippines and 61 per cent of all air travel in Thailand is made on cost-effective carriers.
The region’s three key airports of Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, are all experiencing strong overall air traffic growth of around ten per cent every year they usually have very high levels of connecting traffic, with each airport seeing around 50 per cent of its total air travel volume connect.
These figures demonstrate the region’s increasingly important role as a hub between Europe and the emerging markets of Asia and the South West Pacific.
When the 3 airports are taken as a collection they already serve around 15 per cent of air traffic volume between Asia – Europe and Europe – South West Pacific.
It is very interesting to notice that overall traffic volume between Europe and Asia is growing by approximately seven per cent year over year, but traffic volume between these two locations and routed via the center East grew by approximately 20 per cent between 2011 and 2012.
Pascal Clement, Head of travel intelligence, Amadeus, commented: “The rapid pace of change and extending competitiveness of the worldwide airline industry, as evidenced by this knowledge, means airlines and the broader travel industry increasingly must base operational decision-making on data insights and analytics, as a way to identify opportunities and risks as they emerge.”
He continued: “This data provides excellent news for the airline industry, showing that passenger air traffic has increased in every region of the realm from 2011 to 2012.
“As in 2011, this growth is led by Asia, however, the info points to one more opportunity within the region, where the vast majority of traffic is on a small variety of busy routes.
“The Amadeus Air Traffic solution helps airlines plan and develop networks that reply to true passenger traffic and meet a transparent need out there in line with complete O&D data.”
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