The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has reported that total global air passenger traffic fell by -2.2%, year-on-year, in May. However, if the Middle East was stripped out of the calculation, the rest of the world saw year-on-year growth that month of 0.7%. And Africa experienced an increase of 6.6%, the strongest of any region.
Total international demand was down -1.6% year-on-year, but international demand minus the Middle East saw an increase of 3.1%. Total domestic demand fell -3.1%.
Total global passenger capacity in May declined by -2.3%, while the total load factor was 83.5%, which was a 0.1 percentage point (ppt) increase, year-on-year. International capacity was down -2.4%, and the load factor was 83.7%, up 0.7 ppt. Domestic capacity fell by -2.1%, and the load factor was 83%, which was a -0.8 ppt decrease.
“Air passenger demand was down 2.2% [year-on-year] in May on the impact of war in the Middle East,” explained IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “The decline was centred on carriers in the Middle East with a 28.4% [year-on-year] fall. That’s a significant improvement on the 46.6% decline recorded for April, a sign of the region’s resilience. Notably, we also saw [year-on-year] contractions in demand in North America and Asia, largely related to domestic market conditions in the US and China.”
