The Asia Pacific region has leap-frogged Europe and North America to become the world’s leading aviation market in the first six months of 2010. According to latest sample data from the Airports Council International (ACI), the leading Asia Pacific airports handled close to 500 million passengers in the first half of 2010, up 11.5% over the same period in 2008 (pre-crisis). ACI World Director of Economics Andreas Schimm stated, “North America and Europe remain well behind their respective 2008 pre-crisis levels whereas the other regions have emerged stronger”.