The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced industry performance statistics for 2014 showing the growing demand for air transport. Asia Asia-Pacific has clearly established itself as the industry"™s largest market. In 2014 that was demonstrated by several measures:
"¢ International traffic to, from and within the Asia-Pacific region represented 42% of total international revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs).
"¢ Carriers registered in the Asia-Pacific region carried some 33% of total passengers
"¢ The five busiest international and domestic city-pair air routes were all in the Asia-Pacific 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 some100,000 flights per day and transported 51.3 million tonnes of cargo, equivalent to around 35% 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% 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% market share (1.1 billion passengers, an increase of 8% compared to the region"™s passengers in 2013)
2. Europe 26.3% market share (873.4 million passengers, up 5.6% over 2013)
3. North America 25.3% market share (841.8 million, up 2.6% over 2013)
4. Latin America and the Caribbean 7.7% market share (255.9 million, up 7.0%)
5. Middle East 5.2% market share (173.0 million, an increase of 10.0%)
6. Africa 2.3% market share (76.7 million, up 2.4% 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% from 2013)
2. Jakarta-Singapore (3.5 million, up 1.4%)
3. Hong Kong-Singapore (2.8 million, increase of 7.8%)
4. Hong Kong-Shanghai (2.7 million, up 5.9%)\
5. Hong Kong-Seoul (2.5 million, an increase of 25.8% 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% over 2013)
2. Fukuoka-Tokyo (8.3 million, up 11.7%)
3. Sapporo-Tokyo (7.8 million, a decrease of 4.0% from 2013)
4. Melbourne-Sydney (7.0 million, down 5.2%)
5. Beijing-Shanghai (5.8 million, down 1.1% from 2013)
Cargo
"¢ Globally, cargo markets showed a 5.8% expansion in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs). This outstripped a capacity increase of 5.0% lifting load factors to 48%.
"¢ 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% of total scheduled traffic (in RPK), followed by SkyTeam (20.5%) and oneworld (18.3%).
