Strong air travel growth marks August stats: IATA
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Recent reports released by International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that global passenger traffic results for August showed continued strong growth in air travel demand for both domestic and international traffic.
As per the report, total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 7.1% compared to the previous year. August capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 5.9%, and load factor rose 0.9 percentage points to a record 84.7%.
“August continues the trend of strong demand for air travel, despite some softening in global economic growth, particularly in emerging markets. Airlines are committed to meeting growing demand sustainably. The record high load factor of 84.7% is a great indicator of improved efficiency – a 17 percentage point increase over the industry’s performance a decade ago. This is just one indicator of the aviation industry’s determination to achieve carbon neutral growth from 2020,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
August international passenger demand rose 7.1% compared to last year, with airlines in all regions recording growth, led by Middle East carriers. Total capacity climbed 5.8% pushing load factor up 1.0 percentage point to 85.2%.
Middle East carriers’ August demand jumped 13.7% over 2014. Major economies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and UAE, have experienced slowdowns in non-oil sectors but growth rates remain robust. Capacity nearly kept pace at 13.5% and load factor edged up 0.1 percentage points to 83.7%. Similarly, African airlines’ traffic rose 3.6% in August year-to-year, which was the slowest growth among regions but second consecutive month of growth. Capacity increased 2.9%, with the result that load factor improved 0.5 percentage points to 75.2%.
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