IATA: Strong Growth in Air Travel Demand Continues in February
Global air traffic increased by 89.7 percent year on year in February with all markets recording strong growth, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) this week.
According to IATA, global post-Covid recovery is on track with total traffic in February 2023 up by 55.5 percent over the same month in 2022 and by 84.9 percent on February 2019 levels. This comes on top of strong performance in January, when total traffic increased by 67.0 percent and global air traffic reached 84.2 percent of January 2019 levels.
Domestic traffic in February grew 25.2 percent over 2022 while total monthly domestic traffic recouped 97.2 percent of February 2019 levels.
“The industry is now just about 15 percent below 2019 levels of demand and that gap is narrowing each month,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh.
Leading the way are Asia-Pacific airlines which marked a 378.7 percent increase in February traffic compared to the same month in 2022. Capacity rose by 176.4 percent and load factor by 34.9 percentage points to 82.5 percent, the second highest among the regions.
In Europe, meanwhile, airlines posted a 47.9 percent increase in traffic compared to February 2022. Capacity rose by 29.7 percent and load factor by 9.1 percentage points to 73.7 percent, which was the lowest among the regions.
Traffic for North American carriers grew by 67.4 percent in February 2023 compared to the same month in 2022 with capacity up by 39.5 percent and load factor by 12.8 percentage points to 76.6 percent. Domestic demand in the US rose by 10.6 percent in February and was 0.7 percent ahead of February 2019 levels.
“People are flying in ever greater numbers. With the Easter and Passover holidays, we are expecting large numbers of travelers to take to the skies in many parts of the world,” said Walsh.
IATA represents some 300 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.