Asia Pacific airlines recorded solid growth in international air passenger demand last year with the rise likely to continue into 2013, new figures have revealed.
The 2012 figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed the region's airlines carried a total of 207 million international passengers, rising 7% on 2011 figures due to an "improvement in business markets and sustained leisure travel demand".
Capacity growth for the year climbed a "relatively conservative" 3.9%, with load factor rising 1.5 percentage points to 77.9%.
AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman, described 2012 as "a year of further encouraging growth".
"The global economic recovery is continuing, led by sustained growth in Asia and other developing markets, but consumer confidence in developed Western markets remains quite fragile," he said.
"Nevertheless, the outlook for further growth in passenger travel remains positive, and hopefully in the new year we could also see some signs of a long overdue recovery in the air cargo market."
