The International Air Transport association (Iata) has reported that last year saw the strongest demand for air travel in five years. Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), global air travel demand in 2015 was 6.5% higher than in 2014. This figure was also solidly above the 5.5% ten-year average annual growth rate. The rise in air travel demand was stimulated by lower air fares, which were down by about 5%, compared with 2014. All regions enjoyed increased demand. Worldwide, annual capacity increased by 5.6% in 2015, resulting in the load factor increasing by 0.6% to reach a record annual maximum of 80.3%.

Air travel demand can be broken down into international and domestic markets. Demand for international air travel increased by 6.5% last year in relation to 2014. The increase in capacity was 5.9% and the rise in load factor was 0.5%, to reach 79.7%. Domestic air travel increased by 6.3% last year, with capacity up 5.2% and the load factor rising by 0.9% to 81.5%. All domestic markets experienced growth, with India (RPKs up 20.2%) and China (RPKs rose by 10.9%) leading. (At the other extreme, Australia and Brazil saw growth of only 0.4% and 0.8% respectively.)

“Last year’s very strong performance, against a weaker economic backdrop, confirms the strong demand for aviation connectivity,” explained Iata director-general and CEO Tony Tyler. “But even as the appetite for air travel increased, consumers benefited from lower fares, compared with 2014.”

As usual, performance differed from region to region. Africa displayed the lowest growth in demand, of 3%. On the other hand, this was a big jump in comparison to the demand growth rate reached in 2014, which was only 0.9%. Airline capacity in the region rose only at half the rate of the increase in demand, which meant that the load factor increased by 1% to 68.5%. International air travel enjoyed strong growth in the second half of last year, reflecting the increase in trade to and from the region.

Africa accounts for 2.4% of global air passenger traffic. Asia-Pacific is responsible for 33.3%, North America for 24.8%, Europe for 23.1%, the Middle East for 10.4% and Latin America for 5.9%. The highest air traffic growth was experienced in the Middle East, at 10.5%. (This resulted in Middle East carriers increasing their share of international traffic to 14.2%, overtaking the 13.4% share of their North American counterparts.) However, capacity increased by 13.2%, so load factors fell by 1.7% to 76.4%. In Latin America, despite the economic crisis in Brazil and some other countries, demand increased by 9.3%, while capacity went up by 9.2% and so the load factor increased by 0.1% to 80.1%.

Asia-Pacific saw an increase of 8.2% over 2014 and capacity was up 6.4%, as was the load factor, by 1.3% to 78.2%. The region also benefited from a 7.3% rise in the number of direct airport connections within the region. Demand in Europe was up 5%, capacity increased by 3.8% and the load factor by 1% to 82.6% (making Europe the region with the highest load factor). In North America, demand increased by 3.2% (much the same as in 2014), capacity by 3.1% and the load factor by 0.1% (to reach 81.8%).

“Aviation delivered strong results for the global economy in 2015, enabling connectivity and helping drive economic development,” he highlighted. “The value of aviation is well understood by friends and families whom aviation brings together, by business travellers meeting clients in distant cities, and particularly by those for whom aviation is a lifeline in times of crisis. It is very disappointing to see that some governments still wrongly believe that the value of taxes and charges that can be extracted from air transport outweighs the benefits – economic and social – of connectivity.”