Asia-Pacific and Latin American operators led passenger growth rates among low-cost carriers over the last 12 months as emerging markets continue to embrace low-fares traffic during 2010.

Low-cost carriers across Asia-Pacific enjoyed double-digit growth last year, as passenger numbers across grew nearly a third to 141.6 million among the Asia-Pacific carriers sampled in the latest Airline Business low-cost carriers survey. Indian carriers continued their strong growth, while the likes of AirAsia, Jetstar and Tiger all continued to expand their brand beyond their home markets. Asia-Pacific operators now account for more than a fifth of global low-cost carrier traffic this year's survey shows.

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 Open the interactive low-cost special edition here
Latin America was another of the fast-growing regions for low-cost carrier traffic in 2010, especially driven by rapid expansion by airlines such as Gol, Webjet and Azul in Brazil and Mexican operators like Interjet and Volaris.

Passenger levels grew at a steadiey rate, albeit on a larger base, in the more mature markets of Europe and North America - which together account for almost two-thirds of all low-cost carrier passengers. This helped contribute to an overall 15.7% jump in passenger numbers among 70 airlines figures were available for.

Check out our new low-cost carrier special interactive edition of Airline Business for a breakdown of the different growth pace and dynamics in play across the regions.

For more on the challenges facing the low-cost sector and developments in the Asian market, also check out our recent analysis here

 

Source: Airline Business

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