Air travel has seen a “strong rebound” following the dip caused by the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 at the start of 2022.
Traffic figures for February from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed “accelerated growth” compared with January as many countries lifted their Covid travel restrictions. The association added that the war in Ukraine, which started on 24 February, did not have a “major impact” on airline traffic.
Total traffic in February 2022, as measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), increased by 116 per cent compared to February 2021, according to IATA. This was an improvement from January 2022, which only saw a year-on-year increase of 83.1 per cent.
European carriers saw their traffic in February shoot up by 381 per cent compared with February 2021, as capacity rose by 175 per cent over the same period and load factors reached 71 per cent. Europe was the best performing region in terms of traffic growth in February.
But there is still a long way to go for the global airline industry to get back to pre-Covid levels as February’s traffic was still down by 45 per cent on the same month in 2019. Although this was a significant improvement from January when traffic levels were down by 49.6 per cent compared with pre-pandemic figures.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said: “The recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of the world lift travel restrictions.
“States that persist in attempting to lock-out the disease, rather than managing it, as we do with other diseases, risk missing out on the enormous economic and societal benefits that a restoration of international connectivity will bring.”
Walsh also highlighted the problems many airports are already experiencing as they ramp up their operations to cope with higher passenger numbers, which is already becoming a problem at UK airports.
“It is important that our infrastructure providers are prepared for a huge increase in passenger numbers in the coming months,” added Walsh.
“We are already seeing reports of unacceptably long lines at some airports owing to the growing number of travellers, and that is even before the surge of Easter holiday travel in many markets next week.
“The peak Northern summer travel season will be critical for jobs throughout the travel and tourism value chain. Now is the time to prepare. Governments can help by ensuring that border positions are staffed adequately and that background security checks for new staff are managed as efficiently as possible.”