Kansai Airports Achieves Record High Traffic Volume in First Half of 2016 of 20.3 Million Passengers (Up 5%)

Kansai Airports today announced that its airports, Kansai International Airport (KIX) and Osaka International Airport (ITM) achieved a record high traffic volume for the first half of 2016 of 20.3 million passengers (up 5% over the same period in 2015, or an increase of 974,021 passengers). KIX saw an increase of 826,634 passengers (+7%) for a total 12.8 million passengers and ITM grew by 2% to 7.5 million passengers.

International Traffic (KIX)

Kansai Airports international passengers traffic achieved new records in the summer of 2016 with an average 1,109 flights per week, an increase of 75 flights compared to 2015 (7% growth). Passenger numbers increased by 1.1 million to 9.5 million (13% growth from 2015). Taking into account the increased popularity of Japan as a tourist destination for international travelers, with 19.73 million international tourists in 2015[1], this increase in traffic was driven by an increase in the number of larger aircraft and improved load factor, together with the popularity of existing routes, and new routes launched during the period.

New Routes Launched (From April to September 2016)

[1] Source: Japan National Tourism Organization

Domestic Traffic (KIX and ITM)

Over the period, KIX reported a domestic passenger decrease of 8% or 271,236 passengers, reaching 3.3 million passengers for the first six months of fiscal 2016. However this decrease at KIX was offset by an increase in domestic traffic at Itami Airport which saw 2% growth to 7.5 million passengers (an increase of 147,387 people). The first half of this year saw a slight decrease in the combined ITM/KIX domestic traffic (10.8 million passengers) of 1% compared to the first half 2015 historic record domestic traffic.

With the recent addition of Spring Japan to the Kansai Airports domestic market and the September launch of their first KIX domestic route to Tokyo, Narita (one daily flight), domestic traffic is expected to rebound from this winter.

Cargo volume(KIX and ITM)

Despite the economic slow-down in mainland China, cargo tonnage at Kansai Airports has risen by 2% during the first half to 426,325 tons. Tonnage increased for international cargo (2%) at 350,232 tons and Tonnage decreased for domestic (-0.2%) at 76,093 tons. International cargo is expected to benefit from the recent implementation of Unitop Airline, which has established a daily cargo service to Shenzhen(SZX) in China bringing an incremental about 1,000 tons cargo capacity to the Kansai air cargo market.