The Asia-Pacific has clearly established itself as the aviation industry’s largest market as international traffic to, from and within the region represented 42 per cent of total international revenue passenger km (RPKs), said an Iata report.

Moreover, carriers in the Asia-Pacific region carried 33 per cent of total passengers and the five busiest international and domestic city-pair air routes registered were all in the region.

The information was reported in the recently released 59th Edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), the yearbook of the airline industry’s annual performance.

“Commercial aviation is a remarkable engine for economic activity. The growth of connectivity illustrates the point. A billion more people boarded aircraft last year than did a decade ago. Much of that growth has been in the Asia-Pacific region where expanding connectivity has gone hand-in-hand with economic opportunity. The industry’s 2014 performance shows aviation connectivity as a driving force in emerging economies and a critical component in the developed world,” said Tony Tyler, Iata’s director general and CEO.

In 2014, airlines operated some 100,000 flights per day and transported 51.3 million tonnes of cargo, equivalent to around 35 per cent of the total value of all goods traded internationally.

Highlights of the 2014 airline industry performance:

Passenger

• System-wide, airlines carried 3.3 billion passengers on scheduled services, an increase of 5.8 per cent over 2013. 
• Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region once again carried the largest number of passengers. The regional ranking (based on total passengers carried on scheduled services by airlines registered in that region) is:

1. Asia-Pacific - 33.3 per cent market share (1.1 billion passengers, an increase of 8 per cent compared to the region’s passengers in 2013)
2. Europe - 26.3 per cent market share (873.4 million passengers, up 5.6 per cent over 2013)
3. North America - 25.3 per cent market share (841.8 million, up 2.6 per cent over 2013)
4. Latin America and the Caribbean - 7.7 per cent market share (255.9 million, up 7.0 per cent)
5. Middle East - 5.2 per cent market share (173.0 million, an increase of 10.0 per cent)
6. Africa 2.3 - per cent market share (76.7 million, up 2.4 per cent over 2013).

• The top five airlines ranked by total scheduled passengers carried (domestic and international) were:

1. Delta Air Lines (129.4 million)
2. Southwest Airlines (129.1 million)
3. China Southern Airlines (100.7 million)
4. United Airlines (90.4 million)
5. American Airlines (87.8 million) (note: does not include results of US Airways (54.4 million), which operated as a separate country in 2014)

• The top five international/regional passenger airport-pairs were all within the Asia-Pacific region:

1. Hong Kong-Taipei (5.1 million, up 4 per cent from 2013)
2. Jakarta-Singapore (3.5 million, up 1.4 per cent)
3. Hong Kong-Singapore (2.8 million, increase of 7.8 per cent)
4. Hong Kong-Shanghai (2.7 million, up 5.9 per cent)
5. Hong Kong-Seoul (2.5 million, an increase of 25.8 per cent from 2013)

• The top five domestic passenger airport-pairs were also all in the Asia-Pacific region:

1. Jeju Seoul (10.5 million, up 10.9 per cent over 2013)
2. Fukuoka-Tokyo (8.3 million, up 11.7 per cent)
3. Sapporo-Tokyo (7.8 million, a decrease of 4.0 per cent from 2013)
4. Melbourne-Sydney (7.0 million, down 5.2 per cent)
5. Beijing-Shanghai (5.8 million, down 1.1 per cent from 2013)

Cargo

• Globally, cargo markets showed a 5.8 per cent expansion in freight tonne km (FTKs). This outstripped a capacity increase of 5 per cent lifting load factors to 48 per cent.

• The top five airlines ranked by total freight tonnes carried on scheduled services were:

1. Federal Express (7.1 million)
2. UPS Airlines (4.2 million)
3. Emirates (2.3 million)
4. Korean Air (1.5 million)
5. Cathay Pacific Airways (1.5 million)

Airline Alliances

• Star Alliance maintained its position as the largest airline alliance in 2014 with 23.7 per cent of total scheduled traffic (in RPK), followed by SkyTeam (20.5 per cent) and oneworld (18.3 per cent). – TradeArabia News Service