Welcome to the Air4casts Traffic Tracker, a monthly update on the latest air passenger data actuals gathered exclusively by Air4casts and Airports Council International (ACI).
Passenger growth at the world’s airports slowed in March.
Total growth settled at 2.2% points ahead of last year and a fraction under 3% when compared with 2019.
The results come directly from the 1200 plus airports that have so far declared their official numbers and together they cover 90% of the total air passenger market.
International Airports
Global international air passenger traffic fared better than domestic with a 3% year on year increase and when viewed against March 2019 the uplift was 3.6%.
These are some of the lowest rates of growth since the end of the pandemic.
The results certainly indicate a return to the less dramatic increases that prevailed pre-Covid but there is also a notable effect on the numbers from the March 2024 Easter holiday effect and the fact that Easter this year was in late April.
Airports in Africa topped the March year on year global growth league. Second placed Asia/Pacific remained 6% points adrift of 2019 with China again providing most of the downward drag although there were negatives elsewhere in the region.
Europe’s airports put on moderate year on year growth of 3.2% but international passenger traffic in both the Middle East and North America declined slightly in March compared with the previous year.
In the Middle East in particular there were dramatic growth rate differences across the big hubs. In North America Canadian airports performed a little worse than their American counterparts.
Key International Airports
China’s international airports remained a stubborn 20% down on 2019 while Germany’s were almost 13% smaller than in March 2019.
The contrast between India and China is stark with India’s airports over 11% larger this March than they were six years ago.
In Latin America Brazil’s airports continued to perform exceptionally well while Mexico again declined year on year, in March to the tune of -2.5%. Airports in the USA reported a slight overall drop of -0.3% points in March with inbound foreigners down significantly.
In Europe the UK market dropped a little compared to last year.
Both the Easter holiday dates and the Heathrow closure will have impacted the numbers.
However elsewhere in Europe there were very good year on year growth rates, notably in Italy and Spain.
Domestic Airports
The world’s domestic passenger traffic managed a 1.5% point increase over last year with especially good rates of growth in Latin America and Africa.
Domestic air travel in Asia/Pacific was less encouraging with growth in China’s dominant market stalling somewhat while in India it surged again.
Consumer confidence wobbles in the USA and Canada appear to have pushed the region’s domestic market into negative territory in March with a year on year decline of some two percentage points.
