Robust international demand continues to drive air transport growth worldwide. The monthly “Flash” passenger report for January 2008 by the Airports Council International (ACI) show that passenger demand remained strong in January 2008, with the world’s airports posting a 4 percent increase overall and international traffic rising by 7 percent, as compared to January 2007. Domestic traffic worldwide remained flat at 1 percent compared to January 2007.

ACI Director of Economics Andreas Schimm says, “In addition to solid growth of international traffic worldwide, there is a sharp 7 percent rise in the US international traffic, attributed to capacity shifts made by US carriers to more lucrative international routes and higher demand. Therefore US carriers saw the second consecutive monthly year-on-year domestic traffic decrease, as they continue to tackle low yields and high fuel prices by trimming domestic capacity.”

Schimm adds, “For airports worldwide that today serve over 4 billion passengers annually, forecast to reach over 9 billion by 2025, this scenario raises the important questions of how we will continue to deliver high quality customer service, how we will work with our partners at the airport to streamline the passenger experience and how we will develop our retail offering – for both the passenger’s benefit and the sustainable future of our sector.”