Global passenger traffic rises by 5%, says IATA
Outgoing Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Mr. Tony Tyler, has announced an increase of 5.2 per cent in global passenger traffic for first half of 2016.
Disclosing this development to newsmen, Tyler said that the growth in passenger demand was measured in revenue passenger kilometer (RPK).
Tyler said this in Geneva, adding that the figure increased from the 4.8 per cent last May to the new figure. According to him, the upward trend in seasonally-adjusted traffic has moderated since last January.
In June, capacity otherwise known as available seat kilometres (ASKs ) increased by 5.6 per cent, and load factor slipped by 0.3 percentage points to 80.7 percent, adding that the demand for travel continues to increase, but at a slower pace.
Tyler added that the June demand rose by five per cent compared to June, last year, capacity climbed 6.4 per cent, causing load factor to slide 1.1 percentage points to 79.4 percent.
The IATA boss explained that all regions recorded growth, led by airlines in Latin America. Asia-Pacific airlines’ June traffic increased 8.2 per cent compared to the year-ago period. He added, however, that most of the growth relates to the strong upward trend in traffic seen in the final months of last year and into this year, with June demand barely higher than in February. This could be a natural pause, but possibly is also a sign of Asian passengers being put off travel by terrorism in Europe.
He further stressed that the capacity rose by 7.3 per cent and load factor inched up by 0.6 percentage points to 78.2 per cent stating that European carriers saw demand rise 2.1 per cent, the smallest increase among regions, reflecting the negative impact of recent terrorism.
He added that while demand tends to recover reasonably quickly after such events, the repeated nature of the attacks may have a more lasting impact.
“Middle Eastern carriers posted a 7.5 per cent traffic increase in June, which was well down on the double-digit growth recorded earlier in the year”, Tyler said.
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