As this year's Airline Business Top 150 airports traffic ranking shows, the world's main gateways had a good year in 2007. The star performers were in Russia, India, China and the Middle East, as the emerging markets showed the way
The world's airports registered another bumper year for traffic growth in 2007, with strong rises in almost every region. Even the US market, which had stagnated in 2006, managed a 3% traffic hike.
The increases were not quite up to the records set in the peak year of this cycle in 2004, but were not far off. Overall global traffic, according to preliminary figures from Airports Council International, rose by 6.7%. Airports in the Middle East led the way, with the fastest growth in both passenger and cargo traffic in 2007.
Despite a nervous airline industry, struggling to cope with record fuel prices and worries over traffic demand in the face of a worsening economic environment, the beginning of 2008 has continued to be relatively kind to airports in growth terms. ACI numbers for the first three months show passenger numbers rising by 4.5%. This has mostly been driven by international traffic, up by 7.6%, while domestic travel has lagged at 2.3% growth.
As the table of the fastest growing airports shows, Moscow Domodedovo grew by nearly a quarter in 2007. The hub overtook Sheremetyevo as Moscow's main gateway in 2006 and has not looked back. The transfer of Lufthansa's passenger and cargo operations from Sheremetyevo to Domodedevo at the beginning of the summer timetable was a watershed event for this ambitious airport operator. Tempting Lufthansa to defect is a major coup for Domodedevo. The German carrier, which is the largest foreign operator in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, had kept faith with Sheremetyevo while other Star Alliance members moved across town. In the past Lufthansa also worked on joint plans with Sheremetyevo to develop its terminals but they came to nothing.
Now Lufthansa has joined its Star partners in one modern terminal at Domodedevo. Only Air France-KLM of Europe's big three remains at Sheremetyevo.
Another spectacular rise in recent years has been at Indian capital Delhi. This airport has seen passenger numbers nearly double in the past four years. From its position at number 94 in the 2004 ranking with the airport handling 12 million passengers, last year it coped with 23 million and rose to 52 in the table. It will certainly break into the top 50 of the ranking this year.
The biggest faller in 2007 was São Paulo's city centre airport of Congonhas. It saw traffic dive by over 17% after the Brazilian government restricted movements following the fatal crash of a TAM Airbus A320 in July. São Paulo's international airport at Guarulhos has benefited as airlines moved flights across.
Source: Airline Business
