The total air traffic worldwide saw an increase of 55.5% compared to last year’s figures and is now at around 84.9% of what it was back in February before the pandemic hit us hard globally – this marks a slight improvement from January’s figure which stood at just over 84%. Global capacity also witnessed growth with available seat kilometers increasing by 35.7%, while passenger load factor went up by 9.9 percentage points, standing at 77.8%
“Despite the uncertain economic signals, demand for air travel continues to be strong across the globe and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA.”The industry is now just about15 percent below our previous peak recorded back in2019,and that gap between current numbers and those we had previously achieved is narrowing each month.”
In terms of regional performance,the Asia-Pacificregion has ledthe waywith impressiveYoY increasesof105.%for total demandand378.%forinternationaldemand since liftingtravel restrictionsin theregion.Accordingly,capacitygrowthinternationallywasalso highestin this region,with an increase of176.4%, while passenger load factor went up by34.9 percentage points to reach82.5%.
North America saw a total demand growth of 25.1% with capacity increasing by19%. International demand was also on the rise and increasedby67.4%,whilecapacitywentupby39.5%. Passenger load factor climbed12.8percentage pointsto76.%
The European market showed a similar trend as its North American counterpart, with total demand growing at44.%and capacityincreasingat27..%; however,the lowest passenger load factor among all regions stood at75.%Internationalpassengerloadfactorswerehigher in most regions than they were back in2019 except for Europe and North America where recovery has outpacedgrowthindemandaccordingtoIATA.
In domestic markets, Japan led the way with traffic rising161.%YoY.Furthermore,India hadthehighestcapacitygrowthof50.,whereas only one country managed to show any signs of improvement over pre-pandemic levels – The United States which recordeda meager0..%
