Last year, African airlines experienced their strongest year of passenger growth since 2012, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported. Passenger numbers on international flights within, and to and from, the continent, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), increased by 7.4%. African airline capacity precisely matched the demand, meaning that their average load factor remained at 67.7%. This growth in traffic was driven mainly by the strong demand on Asian and Middle Eastern routes. Africa accounts for 2.2% of global air passenger traffic.

Worldwide, 2016 was also a good year. Global RPKs increased by 6.3%, compared with 2015 (6% if adjustments are made for the leap year). This was significantly above the ten-year average annual growth rate of 5.5%, the association reported. Global airline capacity increased by 6.2% over 2015 to increase the load factor by 0.1% to 80.5% – a record full-year average high.

“Air travel was a good news story in 2016,” affirmed Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “Connectivity increased with the establishment of more than 700 new routes. And a $44 fall in average return fares helped to make air travel even more accessible. As a result, a record 3.7-billion passengers flew safely to their destination. Demand for air travel is still expanding. “The challenge for governments is to work with the industry to meet that demand with infrastructure that can accommodate the growth, the regulation that facilitates growth and taxes that don’t choke growth. If we can achieve that, there is plenty of potential for a safe, secure and sustainable aviation industry to create more jobs and increase prosperity.”

Regarding international flights, the region that saw the strongest growth last year was the Middle East, whose carriers saw their RPKs 11.8% higher than in 2015. Second came Asia-Pacific, whose airlines enjoyed growth of 8.3%. Latin America matched Africa at 7.4%, despite the economic difficulties in Brazil, the region’s biggest market. European carriers saw an increase of 4.8% and those ofNorth America 2.6%.

Worldwide, there was a 5.7% rise in domestic air travel, while capacity increased by 5.1%, resulting in a load factor of 82.2%, which was an increase of 0.5%, compared with 2015. The only major domestic air travel market to experience a decline was Brazil, where RPKs fell by 5.5%. (However, Brazilian airlines were able to increase their load factor to 80.1%, which is the highest level since Iata started monitoring this measure in 1990.) At the other extreme, the domestic markets which saw the greatest increases were India (23.3%) and China (11.7%). Apart from these three countries, the biggest air travel domestic markets are Australia, Japan, Russia and the US.

Domestic air travel, in terms of RPKs, accounts for 36% of total air travel. It is most important for North American airlines, representing some 66% of their business. It is also important in Latin America, accounting for 46% of the operations of the region’s airlines (largely thanks to the large Brazilian market). In Asia-Pacific, the proportion of air traffic provided by domestic operations is almost as high, at 45%, as a result of the large Chinese, Indian and Japanese markets. Domestic air travel only amounts to 14% of African airline business and 11% for European operators. For Middle Eastern carriers, domestic business is a mere 4% of their operations.

“Our freedom to connect through air travel drives prosperity and enriches societies,” he highlighted. “That freedom can only be given its fullest expression when governments facilitate the movement of people and goods. Security and competitiveness, of course, must always be top of mind for governments. And the four-billion people who will travel by air this year are an opportunity to build an even better world through the positive impacts of globalisation – mutual understanding, innovation and business opportunities among them. Aviation is the business of freedom. And we must defend its social and economic benefits from barriers to travel and protectionist agendas.”