In April, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that demand for passengers was still quite high.
Revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs, used to quantify traffic in April 2023 increased overall by 45.8% from April 2022. Traffic is now 90.5% of pre-Covid levels worldwide. Only 1.8 percentage points separated the industry load factor from its pre-pandemic level of 81.3%.
Domestic traffic for April increased 2.9% over April 2019 figures, up 42.6% from the same month last year. Domestic traffic has now fully recovered.
In comparison to April 2022, international traffic increased 48.0%, with airlines in the Asia-Pacific region continuing to lead the rebound. International RPKs surpassed April 2019 levels by 83.6%.
“The excellent traffic trend we observed in the first quarter of 2023 maintained in April. Willie Walsh, the director general of IATA, stated that the easing of inflation and growing consumer confidence in the majority of OECD nations along with falling jet fuel costs “suggest sustained strong air travel demand and moderating cost pressures.”
In comparison to April 2022, traffic for Asia-Pacific airlines increased by 192.7% in April 2023. The load factor rose 13.2 percentage points to 81.6% while capacity rose 145.3%.
Compared to April 2022, traffic for European carriers increased by 22.6%. The load factor increased 4.5 percentage points to 83.3%, the second-highest among the areas, while capacity increased 16.0%.
In comparison to April of last year, Middle Eastern airlines reported a 38.0% increase in traffic. The load factor increased 5.6 percentage points to 76.2% while capacity increased by 27.8%.
In comparison to April 2022, traffic on North American carriers increased 34.8%. The load factor grew 5.2 percentage points to 83.8%, the highest among the areas, while capacity increased by 26.5%. With RPKs 0.4% higher than April 2019 levels, North American international traffic has fully recovered at this point.
In comparison to the same month in 2022, traffic for Latin American airlines increased by 25.8%. Capacity increased by 26.4% in April, while load factor decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 83.1%.
The second-highest increase across the regions was seen in April 2023 for African carriers, when compared to a year earlier. Capacity increased by 50.0% in April, while the lowest regional load factor of 69.8% increased by 1.6 percentage points.
Domestic traffic in China increased by 536.2% in April compared to the same month last year, topping April 2019 levels by 6.0%.
Domestic demand for US airlines increased 5.5% in April and was 3.3% higher than in April 2019.
Source- travel daily
Link:https://www.traveldailymedia.com/travel-demand-continues-strong-in-april-iata/