Osaka Itami Airport

Peach reports strong first month of LCC operations, but at expense of declining ANA traffic

Peach Aviation, the first of a new wave of low-cost carriers to enter Japan, has reported a solid first month of operations, carrying in Mar-2012 approximately 67,000 passengers across three routes with a load factor of 83%, above initial projections.

This traffic, however, has come at the expense of parent company All Nippon Airways (ANA), which saw year-on-year traffic and load factor declines above the system average. The negative story at the mainline operation is the same when measured against traffic in Mar-2010. While Peach is young and ANA's other LCC, AirAsia Japan, is yet to launch, the presence of traffic cannibalisation is evident. While this is not unexpected and ANA has planned for it, the level of cannibalisation appears to be above ANA's projections. It is a sign of the changing North Asia market, and a worry for ANA, which holds by far the largest share of domestic Japanese capacity – and plans domestic growth in coming years.

The world's top ten routes are in Asia Pacific

The world's busiest air route is...Tokyo Haneda-Sapporo Chitose. Indeed the top ten are all in the Asia Pacific region, which reflects its rise as the world's pre-eminent aviation market. Many of Asia's leading route pairs are in the established markets of Japan and Australia. But it is also interesting that among the airports represented as end points in the top 10 routes, ten of the airports fail to rank in the world's Top 30 airports. Though Sapporo has an enormous seat offer to Haneda, it has far less impact elsewhere.

Tiger Airways & business recovery propels Australia’s golden triangle up rankings of world’s busiest

Passenger numbers on the Melbourne-Sydney route (Australia’s busiest and now the world’s fourth busiest) surged 18.5% year-on-year in May-2010, reflecting a recovery in business travel and Tiger Airways’ expansion on the route since Jul-2009. The increase was well ahead of the 5.3% increase in Australian domestic airline passengers for the month and signals the revitalisation of the route after several years of stagnation under the former Qantas-Virgin Blue duopoly.

Kansai Airport voices concern over Tokyo expansion

The 2010 airport expansion at Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports could have a negative impact on Osaka’s offshore Kansai International Airport (KIAC), according to KIAC’s executive vice president, Tadakuni Hirano.