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Asia-Pacific was the only region in the world to see its passenger traffic worsen in 2021 as countries went into lockdown despite other nations opening up.
New analysis from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed APAC’s numbers tumbled by 14 per cent compared to 2020 despite North America’s increasing by 75 per cent.
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It meant Qantas’ worldwide rank slipped from being ranked 24 pre-pandemic to 77, and Virgin Australia from 60 to 92.
In Australia, Sydney was in lockdown until 11 October 2021, while China is still using movement restrictions in its cities today.
“Across the Asia-Pacific as a whole — in stark contrast to recovery in all other world regions — airlines saw traffic fall again last year,” said Cirium.
“Cathay Pacific slipped spectacularly, falling out of the top 100 ranking entirely following Hong Kong’s pursuit of an aggressive zero-COVID strategy. It was not alone. Carriers across the region in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand also continued to shrink.
“Along the way, Asia Pacific also lost its place as home to the world’s largest share of airline traffic. The region’s carriers accounted for over a third of global traffic going into the pandemic and grew that share in 2020 as COVID ramped up in other parts of the world during the year.
“But by 2021, it had surrendered that lead to the recovering US airlines.”
Overall, American Airlines emerged top of the passenger rankings, followed by Delta, United, and Southwest .
Based on more than 600 operators in the Cirium airline database, the rankings showed that world traffic ended 2021 down by 57 per cent against the pre-pandemic peak.
In terms of passenger numbers, the total stood at 2.3 billion for the year, representing around half of the volumes from the peak in 2019.
Last month, Australian Aviation reported separate Cirium figures that showed Virgin, Qantas, and Air New Zealand were named among the global airlines with the current highest cancellation rates.
Domestic aviation has repeatedly broken records for delays in 2021 in April, June, and July.
At one point, the Darwin-Sydney route saw on-time departures slump to just 26.4 per cent, with weather and sick leave absences blamed.
