Beijing to overtake Atlanta as world's biggest airport in 2012

Only 400,000 monthly seats now separate Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and Beijing Airport

Beijing Airport is set to overtake Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson as the world's busiest as Asian airports continue their inevitable march towards global leadership, according to new analysis released December 6.

According to the Centre for Pacific Aviation (CAPA), Atlanta will hold its position as the world's busiest airport through the end of this year, with 8.38 million seats flying in and out in December 2011, but concluded "it is only a matter of time before Atlanta is dethroned."

In the recent monthly aviation trends from airline analyst OAG Aviation, only 400,000 monthly seats now separate Atlanta and Beijing, with the organization suggesting that Beijing is set to become the world's largest airport in 2012.

However, CAPA suggests that Atlanta shouldn't be the only airport anxiously looking over its shoulder, noting that this week, Tokyo Haneda has operated more seats than London Heathrow, which has seen a slump in growth over the past few months.

This month was the seventh consecutive month of growth for the global aviation industry, with two percent more flights taking off than in December 2010, but it looks as if the map of flight connections will look very different by December 2012.

North America and Europe continue to decline in performance, said OAG's recent report, leaving Asia Pacific and Latin America to steadily increase their percentage share of global traffic.

Flights within Asia have have risen from accounting for a quarter of all global capacity to almost a third in the ten years from December 2002 to December 2011, OAG remarked.

http://www.nydailynews.com