New passenger demand analysis reveals inter-regional hot spots of airline traffic growth

• Analysis by Amadeus and its partner airconomy reveals Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Europe as global hotspots of long distance air travel

• Traffic to and from the BRIC countries displays the strongest increase whilst the traditionally strong routes between North America and Europe remain stagnant

• Passenger traffic between Brazil and the Middle East is up by 77%


Madrid, Spain, 30 June 2011: Asia Pacific and the Middle East, followed by Europe, have become global hot spots for inter-regional long distance air travel, according to analysis by the market intelligence solution Amadeus Total Demand by airconomy. The review looks at trends in worldwide passenger demand in between regions over the last two years, comparing the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarters of both 2010 and 2011*.

Demand for air traffic between Asia Pacific and the Middle East grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 13% to almost 3 million passengers a month** in the first quarter of 2011. Dubai remains the most prominent origin and destination amongst the fastest growing city pairs, such as Dubai-Mumbai, Dubai-Karachi and Dubai-Delhi.

Traffic between the Middle East and Europe has surged 10.7% CAGR over the last two years, creating a market of approximately 2.4 million passengers a month. Dubai, London and Paris are the chief contributors to this trend, with London-Tel Aviv, Paris-Cairo, and Dubai-London as examples of rapidly growing city pairs.
“The Middle East is frequently misconceived as just a point of transfer. Our data, however, shows strong evidence of the sharp increase as origin or final destination of this part of the world,” says David Doctor, Director, Amadeus Airline and Travel Agency Distribution.

European demand to and from Asia Pacific added a hefty 4.8% CAGR to a traffic flow which is already the strongest worldwide, given there are nearly 3.5 million passengers in this market. Of the top city-pairs contributing to this growth, London is the busiest travel point. London-Bangkok, London-Delhi and London-Hong Kong, are among the top city pairs causing this increase.

Air flows between regions in other markets, although robust in absolute passenger volume, were not able to exhibit growth figures in the same range as those in between Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Such is the case of passenger streams between North America and Europe which have stagnated since 2009 despite economic recovery. At 6.1% CAGR, demand between North America and Asia Pacific represents the most significant increase in intercontinental flows for the North American region.

BRIC economies, especially Brazil and Russia, are also among the most powerful engines driving up traffic flows worldwide. China and India are equally flourishing, albeit at a slower pace. Passenger traffic between Brazil and the Middle East is up by 77%; Brazil and Russia by 63%; and Brazil and India by 34%. Traveller flux between Russia and South America grew by 41%; Russia to Africa by 31% and Russia to Asia Pacific by 27%.

The global emerging economic centres are also leading in domestic growth. Domestic traffic is increasing every year in Brazil by 28%; Russia by 23%; as well as China and India by 14%. China is the second largest domestic air travel market in absolute terms with circa 20 million passengers.

“In the past, the travel industry could only guess long distance passenger volumes in between major intercontinental hubs. Today, Amadeus Total Demand by airconomy gives an accurate view of total passengers carried on any given city-pair,” says Philipp Goedeking, Managing Director, airconomy.

Amadeus Total Demand by airconomy is able to provide detailed demand data for any city-pair in the world. Data is mined from a large number of sources including low cost carriers, airline direct online sales as well as from the GDS distribution channel. The data is then processed by a cutting edge computing algorithm and robustly tested to ensure the highest accuracy of results.

*All percentages make reference to the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between the first quarter of 2009 and the first quarters of both 2010 and 2011.
**All passenger numbers are an estimate of the passenger volume per month in the first quarter of 2011.

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Notes to the editors

About Amadeus IT Group

Amadeus is a leading transaction processor and provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel and tourism industry.

Customer groups include travel providers (e.g airlines, hotels, rail, ferries, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and individual travellers).

The group operates a transaction-based business model and processed 850 million billable travel transactions in 2010.

Amadeus has central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters and marketing), Nice (development) and Erding (Operations – data processing centre) and regional offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Dubai. At a market level, Amadeus maintains customer operations through 73 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations covering 195 countries.

Amadeus is listed on the Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia stock exchanges and trades under the symbol “AMS.MC”. For the year ended 31 December 2010, the company reported revenues of EUR 2,683 million and EBITDA of EUR 1,015 million. The Amadeus group employs over 10,130 employees worldwide, with 123 nationalities represented at the central offices.

To find out more about Amadeus please go to www.amadeus.com.

To visit the Amadeus Investor Relations centre please go to www.investors.amadeus.com.

About airconomy
airconomy is one of the leading international strategy consultancies for the airline industry. The combination of more than 20 years of aviation experience and advanced state-of-the-art computational procedures enables airconomy to provide precise and relevant assessments of demand and competition within aviation networks and to give strategic advice based on facts.

airconomy was founded in 2007 and has its headquarter in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Its customers include airlines, airports, financial and governmental institutions.

To find out more about airconomy please visit www.airconomy.com


Contact details

Amadeus
Corporate Communication / Corporate Marketing
tel: +34 91 582 0160
fax : +34 91 582 0188
e-mail : mediarelations@amadeus.com


airconomy aviation intelligence GmbH & Co. KG
Frankfurt Airport Center 1
60549 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
e-mail: info@airconomy.com