Airline traffic reached nearly three-quarters of pre-Covid figures during September as the sector’s “strong” recovery from the pandemic continued, despite the impact of China’s continuing border restrictions.
The latest update from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed that global air traffic reached 74 per cent of 2019 levels in September, as measured by revenue passenger kilometres. This was also a 57 per cent rise compared with September 2021.
The increase was fuelled by a year-on-year 122 per cent increase in international air travel during September 2022, with all regions showing “strong growth”. Domestic traffic only rose by 6.9 per cent over the same period.
Figures for European airlines show that total traffic rose by 60 per cent on September 2021 as load factor reached 85 per cent, the second highest level in the world after North America (85.5 per cent). International travel in Europe performed even better with a 78 per cent increase year-on-year.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said: “Even with economic and geopolitical uncertainties, the demand for air transport continues to recover ground. The outlier is still China with its pursuit of a zero-Covid strategy keeping borders largely closed and creating a demand roller coaster ride for its domestic market, with September being down 46.4 per cent on the previous year.
“That is in sharp contrast to the rest of Asia-Pacific, which, despite China’s dismal performance, posted a 464.8 per cent increase for international traffic compared to the year-ago period.”