Air Travel Growth Continues to be Driven by BRICS Members and South East Asia

Asia leads the world’s growth in air 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 travelling between a given origin and final destination airport, irrespective of the number of connecting stops.

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).

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: