Airport revenues experienced strong growth in financial year 2014, reports Airports Council International (ACI) in the 20th edition of the Airport Economics Report and Key Performance Indicators released this past week.
Although financial performance varied by region, industry revenues as a whole grew by 8.2% from 2013, reaching over US$142 billion in 2014. Revenues from commercial and non-operating activities, now accounting for 45% of the all revenue streams, grew by 7.2%.
The recovery in the Euro area and the United States, combined with the continued buoyancy of aviation in emerging markets, helped drive the gains in airport revenues, says the ACI report.
ACI notes that many airports across the globe have moved towards a business model that charges the traveling end user for their services through passenger-based revenue schemes. On the aeronautical side of the business, over 55% of every dollar was generated from passenger-related charges as compared to other aeronautical sources of income such as aircraft-related revenues.
Commenting on the 7.2% growth on commercial and non-operating revenues, Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World, said: “While European airports hold the highest proportion of these revenues relative to
other regions, much of the revenue growth is originating from airports located in the emerging markets of Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America-Caribbean, where the highest growth in commercial revenues is being posted.
“The airport revenue model is becoming increasingly diversified and sophisticated,” added Gittens. “Airport operators have moved beyond being mere infrastructure providers for aeronautical activities to varied and far-reaching enterprises. Commercial or non-aeronautical sources of income such as retail concessions and car parking contribute to the diversification in an airport’s income portfolio and provide an additional cushion during adverse economic times.”
In a further breakdown of the Key industry figures for the 2014 financial year, ACI reports:
Global airport revenue per passenger: US$21.22
- Global aeronautical revenue per passenger: US$11.78
- Global non-aeronautical revenue per passenger: US$8.58
- Total cost per passenger: US$16.82
- Ratio of aircraft-related charges (33.6%) to passenger-related charges (55.8%) and other aeronautical revenues (terminal rentals) (10.6%): 34:66
Notes: The ACI Airport Economics Survey generated responses from 818 airports for the 2014 financial year. Together, these airports handled 4.79 billion passengers or about 71% of worldwide passenger traffic in 2014.
Individual airport financial data was submitted in 66 different currency denominations and converted into US Dollars (US$) using official exchange rates, calculated as an annual average based on monthly averages and expressed as local currency units relative to the US$. The financial figures for the previous year (2013) were adjusted by the inflation rate, obtained from the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Databases and International Financial Statistics.
