The "World Airport Report" is based on Arthur D. Little's comprehensive analysis of world airport traffic, which is being presented in cooperation with ATW, the leading monthly magazine covering the global airline industry, for the first time.
The study reports that Beijing Capital International Airport added the most passengers in 2006 as throughput grew by 7.5 million. Beijing is now the world's ninth-busiest airport in terms of passengers.
European and Asian airports accounted for 75 percent of global growth in 2006. North American airport traffic rose less than 1 percent.
"Several major US hubs fundamentally suffered from the network rationalization effort undertaken in 2005 and 2006 by their main carriers," said Arthur D. Little Senior Manager Laurent Delarue. “With no major U.S. airlines in bankruptcy for the first time since 2002, airport traffic growth should be stronger this year.”
Led by the boom in air travel in India and China, Asian airport traffic rose 9.7 percent in 2006, but that rate is expected to slow in 2007. Airports in China and India accounted for 55 percent of the passenger growth in Asia last year.
The report classifies airports by three categories: intercontinental hubs, such as London Heathrow, New York JFK and Beijing, which have at least one based network airline serving numerous international long-haul destinations with connecting opportunities; continental hubs, such as Milan Malpensa and Tokyo Haneda, with at least one based network airline providing connecting opportunities to medium-haul destinations; and regional platforms, representing airports, such as Boston Logan and Paris Orly, that are not hubs.
Based on these classifications, regional platforms have been the most consistent performers over the past five years, with average annual growth of 4.9 percent. In large part, this reflects the continued success of the low-cost carrier model that is already well-established in North America and Europe and is catching on in the Asia/Pacific region.