Asian carriers continue to be impacted by weakness in the inbound Japanese leisure market as the recovery from the Mar-2011 earthquake and tsunami has been much slower than initially projected. But overall the outlook for Asian carriers is relatively positive as growth in Asia is expected to continue outpacing growth in mature markets, particularly Europe, by a wide margin.

In his welcome address at last week’s Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) assembly of presidents in Seoul, Asiana CEO Young-Doo Yoon said “the Asia Pacific outlook is bright as relatively strong economic growth will continue to allow our region to outperform others”. AAPA director general Andrew Herdman said that “overall we’re still bullish on the future”.

Through the first nine months of 2011, AAPA members collectively recorded 4% year-over-year traffic growth in terms of both RPKs and total passengers carried. When excluding the impact of the Mar-2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the growth would have been in the high single digits.