Asia aviation rankings: Malaysia close to overtaking Thailand, Philippines gaining on Hong Kong
Asian aviation is growing strongly, with airlines expanding their seating capacity by 7.4% this month, well ahead of the global 6% increase, according to Innovata. The Indian Subcontinent is leading the Asian charge, while China is surprisingly down in 18th place in terms of Asian growth rates, with just a 5.2% increase in seats (domestic and international) this month.
Seat capacity to/from/within Japan, Asia's second biggest aviation market, is contracting by 5.5% this month, while India and Indonesia are booming (up 18.4% and 15.9%, respectively). South Korea is witnessing double-digit growth, while Malaysia is edging closer to overtaking Thailand as Asia's sixth biggest aviation market. The Philippines is meanwhile within 34,000 weekly seats of overtaking (the international only) Hong Kong as the eighth biggest aviation market in the region. Singapore rounds out the Top 10.
Capacities to Asia - Seats per week by destination country (includes domestic, where applicable): May-2011 vs May-2010
| Country | May-2010 | May-2011 | % Change | Growth
Rank |
Ranking by Seats
|
Variance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May-2010 | May-2011 | ||||||
| China | 7,060,042 | 7,428,871 | 5.2% | 18 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Japan | 3,267,930 | 3,089,077 | -5.5% | 24 | 2 | 2 | - |
| India | 1,763,569 | 2,087,289 | 18.4% | 3 | 3 | 3 | - |
| Indonesia | 1,270,038 | 1,472,175 | 15.9% | 6 | 4 | 4 | - |
| South Korea | 944,124 | 1,059,576 | 12.2% | 12 | 5 | 5 | - |
| Thailand | 790,613 | 883,825 | 11.8% | 13 | 6 | 6 | - |
| Malaysia | 783,649 | 882,637 | 12.6% | 11 | 7 | 7 | - |
| Hong Kong | 589,419 | 668,840 | 13.5% | 9 | 8 | 8 | - |
| Philippines | 547,650 | 635,781 | 16.1% | 5 | 9 | 9 | - |
| Singapore | 517,607 | 587,387 | 13.5% | 8 | 10 | 10 | - |
| Taiwan | 475,624 | 528,377 | 11.1% | 14 | 11 | 11 | - |
| Vietnam | 360,055 | 415,133 | 15.3% | 7 | 12 | 12 | - |
| Pakistan | 194,992 | 206,936 | 6.1% | 17 | 13 | 13 | - |
| Bangladesh | 96,174 | 92,053 | -4.3% | 23 | 14 | 14 | - |
| Sri Lanka | 62,736 | 78,992 | 25.9% | 1 | 15 | 15 | - |
| Nepal | 62,178 | 63,001 | 1.3% | 22 | 16 | 16 | - |
| Macau | 50,904 | 55,385 | 8.8% | 16 | 18 | 17 | +1 |
| Myanmar | 51,813 | 54,332 | 4.9% | 19 | 17 | 18 | -1 |
| Cambodia | 43,393 | 49,130 | 13.2% | 10 | 19 | 19 | - |
| Maldives | 34,334 | 39,994 | 16.5% | 4 | 20 | 20 | - |
| Brunei Darussalam | 23,017 | 23,361 | 1.5% | 21 | 21 | 21 | - |
| Laos | 17,718 | 18,214 | 2.8% | 20 | 22 | 22 | - |
| Mongolia | 8,873 | 9,745 | 9.8% | 15 | 23 | 23 | - |
| Bhutan | 1,952 | 2,440 | 25.0% | 2 | 24 | 24 | - |
| GRAND TOTAL | 19,018,404 | 20,432,551 | 7.4% | ||||