Passenger Traffic Demand Improves In March

May 4, 2017

Global passenger traffic demand rose 6.8 percent in March, IATA said in its monthly Air Passenger Market Analysis.

The International Air Transport Association report said lower air fares and improved global economic conditions contributed to the improvement.

Asia Pacific topped the regional list with a 10.7 percent increase in revenue passenger kms (RPK), Latin America returned a strong 7.8 percent uplift to come second, with Europe third on a 6 percent increase.

North America was the slowest growing IATA region with a 3.2 percent RPK traffic increase.

IATA said the ban on large electronics in the cabin on some routes to the US and UK happened too late in March to have an effect on traffic figures, but Director General Alexandre de Juniac said “the last weeks have been challenging to the passenger business. The laptop ban - implemented with next to no notice, no dialogue and no coordination, is testing public confidence in how governments and industry work together to keep flying secure.”

Capacity, in available seat km (ASK) terms, was up 6.1 percent overall, with the Middle East adding the most capacity, 9.3 percent, followed by Asia Pacific on 8 percent, and Europe and Latin America tying on a 5.3 percent increase.

All regions except the Middle East and North America saw improvements to load factors, with Africa leading the way on a 2 percentage point increase. North America had the best overall load factor, on 83.6 percent, down 0.1 percentage point on the previous year’s number. Global load factor edged up 0.5 percentage points to 80.4 percent.

“Strong traffic demand continued throughout the first quarter, supported by a combination of lower fares and a broad-based upturn in global economic conditions,” de Juniac said in a statement. “The price of air travel has fallen by around 10 percent in real terms over the past year and that has contributed to record load factors”.

de Juniac defended the industry practice of overbooking flights saying, “Everyone, including United, agrees there is no justification for what happened to passenger Dr. David Dao… The video was so shocking that it would be easy for lawmakers and regulators to get caught up in this groundswell of outrage and take steps to limit overselling of flights. However, the management of overbooking has actually worked well for decades. It ensures that scarce capacity is efficiently utilised.

“We must be careful to not risk undoing the many benefits unleashed by the competitive forces of deregulation,” de Juniac added.

(Airwise)