Asia leads the world’s growth in travel and holds seven out of the ten busiest inter-city routes. In addition to the BRIC markets, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Chile showed an impressive growth, according to analysis by the market intelligence solution Amadeus Total Demand. The review looks at trends in worldwide passenger demand* between regions, countries, and specific airports,…
Asia leads the world’s growth in travel and holds seven out of the ten busiest inter-city routes. In addition to the BRIC markets, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Chile showed an impressive growth, according to analysis by the market intelligence solution Amadeus Total Demand. The review looks at trends in worldwide passenger demand between regions, countries, and specific airports, comparing the full 2011 passenger volumes with 2010 data. All figures relate to passengers traveling between a given origin and final destination airport, irrespective of the number of connecting stops.
The most important inter-regional growth patterns of last year are led by Asia.Traffic between Asia and Europe, and between Asia and North America, grew by 9%. Traffic between Asia and the Middle East grew 6% reaching 38 million travelers in the year. Compared with the previous year, 2% fewer passengers traveled between Africa and Europe in 2011; this was the only region pair with a significant traffic flow decrease over the period.
Traffic between North America and Europe remains the busiest inter-regional flow with over 60 million passengers in 2011, followed by Asia and Europe with over 53 million, and Latin America and North America with 47 million passengers.
In terms of connecting traffic, over 50% of all passengers in the triangle between Asia, Europe, and North America change aircraft at least once. On the otherhand, only 7% of all passengers traveling within Asia travel with a connecting flight, compared to 10% in Europe, and 31% in North America. The largest airports in Asia have a lower percentage of connecting traffic than the North American and European hubs. The average connecting rate of the ten busiest airports in Asia is 19% compared with 32% for the top ten hubs in Europe and 45% in North America.
The 2011 country statistics reveal, unsurprisingly, that the strongest growth in absolute passengers is led by the BRIC countries. China registered an additional 19 million in 2011 than 2010, Brazil 12 million, India 8 million, and Russia 6 million. Indonesia was the 5th strongest growth market with an additional 5 million passengers in 2011.
Brazil (17%), India (13%), and Russia (15%) also featured in the top ten fastest-growing countries by percentage growth. Chile (21%), the Philippines (15%), and Indonesia (11%) are also among the fastest growing travel markets. Egypt and Japan are among the fastest-shrinking markets, likely due to the Arab Spring and the Tsunami respectively.
Countries showing highest % growth in passengers between 2010 and 2011 (excluding markets with fewer than 5 million annual passengers)
| Country | Pax 2011 (000s) | Growth vs 2010 |
| Chile | 9,306 | 21% |
| Brazil | 82,334 | 17% |
| Philippines | 24,392 | 15% |
| Russian Federation | 44,541 | 15% |
| Saudi Arabia | 23,345 | 15% |
| Turkey | 34,398 | 15% |
| India | 71,634 | 13% |
| Vietnam | 16,097 | 12% |
| Indonesia | 53,701 | 11% |
It is interesting to note that the strongest traffic in between cities takes place within the same country. From the world’s top ten inter-city routes, seven are within the domestic borders of Asian countries, out of which three are in Japan. In terms of volume, the route between Jeju and Seoul is the most important (almost 10 million passengers) followed by Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (circa 8 million passengers).
Top world inter-city routes:
| Region | Inter-city route | Rank |
| Asia | Jeju – Seoul | 1 |
| South America | Rio de Janeiro –Sao Paulo | 2 |
| Asia | Osaka – Tokyo | 3 |
| Asia | Sapporo -Tokyo | 4 |
| South West Pacific | Melbourne -Sydney | 5 |
| Asia | Fukuoka -Tokyo | 6 |
| Asia | Beijing – Shanghai | 7 |
| Asia | Hong Kong -Taipei | 8 |
| Africa | Cape Town –Johannesburg | 9 |
| Asia | Mumbai – Delhi | 10 |
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
