The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced global passenger traffic results for November showing continued strong traffic growth above the 10-year average rate of 5.6%.
Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 5.9% compared to the period a year ago. Although below the October rate of 7.1%, this largely was owing to the impact of factors that are expected to be short-lived, including the cessation of operations by Transaero, Russia’s second largest carrier, and labor strikes at Lufthansa, Travel Daily Media reported.
The healthy demand continued despite some softening in economic growth, in large part owing to falling fares. Data for the first ten months of the year show a 5% decline in average fares in currency-adjusted terms.
“Consumers continue to benefit from lower fares, which are spurring demand. The economy benefits from the stimulus to consumer spending.
And airlines are starting to achieve minimum acceptable profit levels. It’s good news all around, but as we open 2016, economic risks are mounting,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general.
November international passenger demand rose 5.6% compared to November 2014, with airlines in all regions recording growth. Total capacity (number of available seats) climbed 4.1%, and load factor edged up 1.1 percentage points to 76.2%.
European carriers saw demand increase by 2.2%. The lower growth primarily was triggered by the aforementioned shutdown of Transaero and labor issues at Lufthansa. Capacity slipped 0.1% and load factor rose 1.7 percentage points to 79.5%, highest among the regions.
Middle East carriers had a 9.8% year-on-year increase in passenger demand.
Domestic travel demand rose 6.4% in November compared to November 2014 but results were mixed, with Brazil, Russia and Japan all showing declines.
