Despite tough market conditions, Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) on Monday reported 2.9% passenger growth in the three months from November to January, with 9.2-million passengers using the airport network across the country.

Traffic was boosted noticeably over the summer period at Cape Town International Airport, owing to additional international seasonal capacity and the introduction of low-cost carrier Velvet Sky’s flights. The airport recorded substantial increases in international passenger travel over the previous year, with November’s traffic growing by 12%, while December and January each showed a 17% rise.

The King Shaka International Airport outside Durban capitalised on the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) held from November 28 to December 9, with scheduled domestic traffic increasing by 7.1%. International traffic doubled, with average flight occupancy of 95%.

“Although our busiest airport, OR Tambo International saw a modest 1.5% growth during the three comparing months, statistics confirm that the hub remains southern Africa’s gateway, with an average of 1.6-million passengers making their way through these gates on a monthly basis,” Acsa said in a statement.

Overall traffic results showed that Acsa facilitated 29.9-million arriving and departing passengers between April 2011, and January this year, an increase of 2.6% over the previous corresponding period. If peak figures for the 2010 FIFA World Cup were removed, normalised growth for the period ending in January could be as high as 5.6%.

Of the 29.9-million passengers, domestic traffic grew by 3.1%, to 20.8-million travellers (70% of the total market), while consolidated international and regional traffic showed a 2.7% growth to 8.9-million passengers (30% of the total market).

“These are encouraging indications of an improvement in air travel numbers and it is hoped that growth will be maintained through 2012,” Acsa said.
 

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