Global air passenger traffic continued to recover in November, reports IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently announced that the air travel recovery continued through November 2022, with traffic climbing to 75.3% of 2019 levels.
International air passenger traffic jumped 85.2% y-o-y, while the equivalent increase in domestic traffic came to 3.4%. Moreover, the global airline body also said that global air passenger traffic continued, in November, to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Published on 9 January, the report indicated that total traffic in November 2022 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 41.3% compared to November 2021. “Globally, traffic is now at 75.3% of November 2019 levels. International traffic rose 85.2% versus November 2021. The Asia-Pacific continued to report the strongest year-over-year results, with all regions showing improvement compared to the prior year. November 2022 international RPKs reached 73.7% of November 2019 levels,” IATA said in an official statement.
IATA Director-General Willie Walsh emphasized that traffic results in November reinforce that consumers are thoroughly enjoying the freedom to travel. “Unfortunately, the reactions to China’s reopening of international travel in January reminds us that many governments are still playing science politics when it comes to Covid-19 and travels,” said the head of global airlines body IATA.
As a result, domestic traffic for November 2022 was up 3.4% compared to November 2021, with travel restrictions in China continuing to dampen the global result. Total November 2022 domestic traffic was at 77.7% of the November 2019 level.
According to Walsh, epidemiologists, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and others have said that the reintroduction of testing for travelers from China can do little to contain a virus that is already present around the world.
“And China’s objections to these policy measures are compromised by their pre-departure testing requirements for people traveling to China. Governments should focus on using available tools to manage COVID-19 effectively—including improved therapeutics and vaccinations—rather than repeating policies that have failed time and again over the last three years,” he added.
IATA represents some 300 airlines comprising 83% of global air traffic. For the African regions, African airlines had an 83.5% rise in November RPKs versus a year ago while in November 2022, capacity was up 48.4% and the load factor climbed 14.2 percentage points to 74.3%, the lowest among regions.
“Total passenger traffic market shares for 2021 by region of carriers in terms of RPK are Asia-Pacific 27.5%, Europe 25.0%, North America 32.6%, Middle East 6.6%, Latin America 6.5%, and Africa 1.9%.”
