The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced full-year global passenger traffic results for 2019 showing that demand (revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose by 4.2% compared to the full year of 2018, according to an official report.
There is a slowdown in 2019 result compared to 2018’s
annual growth of 7.3% and marked the first year since the global financial crisis in 2009 with passenger demand below the long-term trend of around 5.5% annual growth. Full-year 2019 capacity climbed 3.4%, and the load factor rose 0.7 percentage points to a record high of 82.6%. The previous high was 81.9% set in 2018. Strong trade and investment linkages with Asia and robust economic performance in some key regional economies contributed to the positive performance.
In December 2019 RPKs increased 4.5% against the same month in 2018. That was an improvement over the 3.3% annual growth recorded in November, primarily due to solid demand in North America.
IATA’s Director General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said: “Airlines did well to maintain steady growth last year in the face of a number of challenges. A softer economic backdrop, weak global trade activity, and political and geopolitical tensions took their toll on demand. Astute capacity management, and the effects of the 737 MAX are grounding, contributed to another record load factor, helping the industry to manage through weaker demand and improving environmental performance.”
The report states that, African airlines led all regions with a 5.0% demand increase, down from 6.3% growth recorded in 2018. Capacity rose 4.5%, and load factor edged up 0.3 percentage point to 71.3%.
Airlines in the region benefitted from a generally supportive economic backdrop in 2019 as well as increases in air transport connectivity.
2019 international passenger traffic climbed 4.1% compared to 2018, down from 7.1% annual growth the year before. Capacity rose 3.0% and load factor edged up 0.8 percentage point to 82.0%.
This reflected the impact of the US-China trade war as well as weakening business confidence and economic activity. Capacity rose 4.1%, and load factor ticked up 0.3 percentage point to 80.9%. The year was impacted by social unrest and economic difficulties in a number of countries in the region.
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