Air passenger traffic continued its recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the whole of last year, including in December, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. IATA is the representative body for the global airline industry.

“The industry left 2022 in far stronger shape than it entered, as most governments lifted Covid-19 travel restrictions during the year and people took advantage of the restoration of their freedom to travel,” observed IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “This momentum is expected to continue in the New Year, despite some governments’ over-reactions to China’s reopening.”

Total air passenger traffic last year was 64.4% higher than during 2021, and reached 68.5% of the level recorded in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. International air traffic in 2022 was 152.7% up on the figure for 2021 and stood at 62.2% of its 2019 levels. Domestic passenger traffic last year increased 10.9% over 2021 and reached 79.6% of the figure for 2019.

For the month of December, total passenger traffic was up 39.7%, year-on-year (y-o-y), coming to 76.9% of December 2019’s figure. The y-o-y increase for international traffic was 80.2% (coming to 75.1% of the December 2019 number) and for domestic traffic, 2.6%, reaching 79.9% of the figure recorded in December 2019.

The region which saw the greatest total traffic increase during the whole of last year, in comparison with 2021, was the Middle East, at 144.4%. It was followed by Europe (100.2%), Africa (84.9%), Latin America (62.7%), North America (45.5%) and lastly the Asia-Pacific (34%). However, the ranking for international air traffic was different, being led by the Asia-Pacific (363.3%), followed by the Middle East (157.4%), Europe (132.2%), North America (130.2%), Latin America (119.2%) and Africa (89.2%).

Regarding domestic air passenger traffic, IATA public reports track six major markets: Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan and the US. For 2022 as a whole, the market which showed the biggest relative recovery, y-o-y, was Australia, at 111.7%. Next came Japan, at 75.9%, then India (48.8%), Brazil (29.9%), and the US (23.7%), while China, still hampered by anti-Covid lockdowns last year, actually recorded a figure of -39.8%.

“Let us hope that 2022 becomes known as the year in which governments locked away forever the regulatory shackles that kept their citizens earthbound for so long,” asserted Walsh. “It is vital that governments learn the lesson that travel restrictions and border closures have little positive impact in terms of slowing the spread of infectious diseases in our globally interconnected world. However, they have an enormous negative impact on people’s lives and livelihoods, as well as on the global economy that depends on the unfettered movement of people and goods.”