Photo by: Duane Daws
The disruptive impact of the Brussels Airport attack that took place in March weighed on the International Air Transport Association’s (Iata’s) April figures for global passenger traffic, with Iata estimating that passenger demand growth would have been around 5% if the attacks did not happen.
Instead, passenger demand rose by 4.6%, the slowest pace since January 2015, said Iata, in a statement released on Monday. The association added that April capacity increased by 4.9%, while load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 79.1%.
“The disruptive impacts of the Brussels terror attacks will likely be short-lived. There are some longer-term clouds over the pace of demand growth. The stimulus from lower oil prices appears to be tapering off and the global economic situation is subdued. Demand is still growing, but we may be shifting down a gear,” said Iata CEO Tony Tyler.
INTERNATIONAL PASSENGER MARKETS
April international passenger demand rose 4.8% compared with April 2015, the slowest pace in two years. Airlines in all regions recorded growth, led by the Middle East region.
Total capacity climbed 5.6%, causing load factor to slip 0.6 percentage points to 77.8%.
African airlines’ traffic climbed 9.9% in April, while capacity rose 11.1%, with the result that load factor slipped 0.7 percentage points to 66.3%, the lowest among the regions. The continued turnaround of the carriers coincided with the expansion of long-haul networks by the region’s airlines.
Demand for domestic travel climbed 4.1% in April compared with the previous year, while capacity increased 3.8%, causing load factor to rise 0.3 percentage points to 81.4%.
Asia-Pacific airlines’ April traffic increased 6.4% compared with the previous period. Slower economic growth in many of the region’s economies had been at least partly offset by an increase in direct airport connections that helped to stimulate demand.
European carriers saw demand rise just 1.8% in April, which was well down on the 6% growth recorded in March. This reflected the impact of the Brussels terror attacks, which closed the airport for nearly two weeks.
Capacity climbed 2.4% and load factor slipped 0.5% percentage points to 80.2%, which was still the highest among the regions.
Middle Eastern carriers posted a 12.7% traffic increase in April, the only region to see a double-digit percentage increase in demand. Capacity growth of 14.8% outstripped this rise, however, which caused load factor to fall 1.4 percentage points to 75.6%.
North American airlines’ traffic rose 1.1% compared with April a year ago, the smallest increase among the regions. Capacity climbed 0.9%, causing a 0.1 percentage point rise in load factor to 78.3%.
While the recent downward slide in international traffic growth paused in April, traffic levels remained below July 2015 levels on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
Latin American airlines experienced a 3.1% rise in April demand compared with the same month last year. Capacity increased by 2.9% and load factor edged up 0.1 percentage points to 77.7%.
China’s airlines recorded 9.5% domestic traffic growth, a strong rebound from the 3.3% increase recorded in March. Fears about the slowing economic growth in the country have eased somewhat and increased growth in frequencies was helping stimulate demand.
India’s domestic traffic soared 21.8%, marking the twentieth month of double-digit traffic growth and the thirteenth consecutive month that it led the domestic markets.
Growth was being propelled by the comparatively strong economic backdrop as well as by substantial increases in service frequencies.