The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported that global air passenger traffic continued to recover strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic in February. IATA is the representative body for the global airline industry.

In year-on-year (y-o-y) terms, total air passenger traffic in February was up 55.5% and had recovered to 84.9% of its February 2019 (pre-Covid) levels. Domestic air passenger traffic in February rose 25.2%, y-o-y, reaching 97.2% of February 2019 levels. And February also saw a 89.7% y-o-y recovery in international passenger traffic, to 77.5% of that recorded in February 2019.

“Despite the uncertain economic signals, demand for air travel continues to be strong across the globe and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region,” noted IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “The industry is now just about 15% below 2019 levels of demand and that gap is narrowing each month.”

The region which recorded the strongest y-o-y recovery in February was the Asia-Pacific, at 105.4%. It was followed by Africa (87.9%), the Middle East (70.6%) and Europe (44.1%). Then came North America (25.1%) and finally Latin America (23.7%).

Regarding only international air passenger traffic, the order was not quite the same. But the Asia-Pacific remained in first place, with a dramatic y-o-y surge in February of 378.7%, followed again by Africa, with a jump of 90.7%. The Middle East remained in third place, with an increase of 75%, but fourth place was taken by North America (up 67.4%), with Europe in fifth (a 47.9% increase) and Latin America again in last place (44.1%).

The six major domestic air travel markets regularly tracked by IATA are Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan and the US. Of these, it was Japan that saw the biggest y-o-y recovery in February, at 161.4%. Second place was taken by Australia (73%), followed by India (43.9%), then China (38.3%), the US (10.6%) and finally Brazil (7.3%).

“People are flying in ever greater numbers,” highlighted Walsh. “With the Easter and Passover holidays we are expecting large numbers of travellers to take to the skies in many parts of the world. They should do so with confidence that airlines have been rebuilding resiliency that suffered owing to the pandemic. Other participants in the air travel value chain, including airports, air navigation service providers, and airport security staff, need to have the same commitment to ensuring our customers can enjoy smooth holiday travel.”