ACI World (aci.aero), an airports advocacy association, reports in its 14th quarterly assessment that 2024 will be a milestone year for global recovery. Figures indicate that, by the end of 2023, 9,4 billion passengers will have taken to the skies, translating to 102,5% of the 2019 levels, surpassing 2019’s 9,2 billion passengers.
Passenger traffic in Africa is expected to steadily increase throughout the upcoming years, reaching 221 million passengers in 2023, or 96,3% of the 2019 level. By the end of 2024, Africa forecasts are estimated to reach 253 million passengers, or 110,6% of 2019 levels. This growth is expected to be driven by emerging markets such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
While Asia-Pacific had a significant jump in passenger traffic in the first half of 2023, partially attributed to China’s market reopening, recovery could be hampered in the second half of the year due to challenges in overseas tourism and looming economic concerns.
Before the pandemic, global passenger volumes were expected to reach 10,5 billion passengers in 2023, while the forecast for 2024 predicted global passenger traffic of 10,9 billion. However, the post-pandemic projection for the end of 2023 is at 8,6 billion passengers, or 94,2% of 2019 figures.
