Publications

ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East has released its Travel Retail Study in the Post-Pandemic Era, developed in partnership with Auran and Steer, analysing 36 major airports across 21 countries. The study reveals a structural shift in airport retail performance, showing that passenger behaviour, demographics, and preferences increasingly drive commercial outcomes beyond traffic volumes alone. Millennials and Gen Z are emerging as key spenders, while duty-free remains central to airport revenues across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The report also highlights evolving spending patterns, retail category performance, sustainability expectations, and strategies airports can adopt to strengthen long-term commercial resilience.

The updated ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East Short-Term Forecast, developed with OAG, projects strong growth, with passenger traffic rising 4.8% annually in Asia-Pacific and 5.4% in the Middle East, while air cargo is expected to grow at 4.3% CAGR and 3.3% CAGR respectively.

The 2025 edition of Airfare Trends provides a data-driven perspective, highlighting markets that have experienced notable airfare increases and examining the factors behind this surge across two of the world’s most dynamic aviation regions.

ACI APAC & MID conducted a comprehensive survey, comprising over 30 key airports from the region to assess airport development needs. The findings indicate a strategic focus on both modernisation of the existing airports and development of new airport infrastructure.

ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East developed a detailed airport industry connectivity index in 2023 to 100 selected airports with coverage of all countries in Asia-Pacific and Middle East region. This 2024/25 report provides the index ranking of the selected 300 airports based on the full year data of 2024 and incorporates further updates to the methodology.

This latest edition of Airport Industry Outlook presents a positive trend in traffic recovery trend in the Q1 2024. The Outlook also has a special focus on Saudi Arabia's Aviation Vision 2030.

The ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East’s latest Airport Industry Outlook provides a positive trend into the recovery of passenger traffic and airport finances, but macro-economic factors still pose a challenge for the overall recovery of the sector. The Airport Industry Outlook reveals the overall seat capacity in H2 2023 is just 3% below the levels recorded in 2019 H2.

This is the fifth edition of the ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East Airport Industry Outlook – Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. It is an up-todate snapshot of airport business performance across the region with an analysis of the key industry trends. This edition examines the latest data affecting air traffic and airport performance including the latest IMF World Economic Outlook updates, which indicate a global slowdown in growth due to increased economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures.