The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported passenger traffic grew across every region in May 2019 compared to May 2018, contributing to global year-on-year growth of 4.5 per cent.
The latest report from the association, which measures demand by the number of revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), found that demand grew in line with the revised April traffic growth of 4.4 per cent. This is also above the trough of 3.1 per cent year-on-year growth seen in March, but below the 20-year average growth rate of 5.5 per cent.
Capacity, measured by available seat kilometres (ASK), grew by 2.7 per cent; the result is load factor (PLF) increasing by 1.4 percentage points to 81.5 per cent.
IATA Director General & CEO Alexandre de Juniac said: “Passenger demand growth has slowed compared to the past two years. This is in line with slumping global trade, rising trade tensions and weakening business confidence. In this challenging environment, airlines are managing capacity carefully in order to optimise efficiency.”
European carriers saw a 5.4 per cent increase in demand for the first five months of 2019 compared to the first five months of 2018, Asia Pacific airlines saw growth of 4 per cent for the five-month period, while growth with Middle East carriers slowed to 0.8 per cent, North American airline traffic rose 4.8 per cent, Latin American airline traffic increased 6.7 per cent and African airlines posted a 2.1 per cent increase in traffic for the first five months of 2019 compared to a year earlier.
