IATA (International Air Transport Association) has released its first quarter traffic results showing that passenger demand rose 7.8% year-on-year. This is the largest year-on-year single month increase recorded.
Average passenger load factors remained high at 76.4% and freight traffic demand continued a 12-month run of sluggish growth with a 2.3% increase. Comparing the first three months of 2007 to the same period in 2006, passenger demand was up 7% with average load factors of 74.9% and freight demand increase of 2.7%.
IATA represents 250 airlines comprising 94% of international scheduled air traffic but does not include a number of significant budget carriers, including Ryanair with whom it has a fraught relationship.
"The story for passenger traffic is based on strong economies driving the demand to travel for both business and leisure markets. For freight, competition for other modes of transport ” particularly sea ” is holding growth below our forecast of 5.5% for 2007," said IATA's director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani.
He added: "People want to travel and they are doing it in record numbers. The fact that airlines are meeting that demand with newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft and near-record load factors bodes well for the bottom line and should lead to an industry profit of US$3.8bn (”4.2bn) in 2007."
The IATA figures bear out those issued by OAG yesterday (8 May, click here to read the story ) which showed a 5% increase in actual seats on offer.
Carriers in the Middle East continued their three-year trend of double-digit passenger demand growth with a year-on-year increase over the first quarter of 20.4%. Since 2001, Middle Eastern carriers have increased their overall share of global traffic from 5% to 8%.
All other regions also saw year-on-year increases for passenger traffic. African carriers reported an 11.9% increase boosted primarily by new and expanded routes to the Middle East and Asia. Strong economies drove demand for carriers in Europe (8.2%), Asia (6.9%) and North America (5%). Latin American carriers, which continue to be affected by industry restructuring, reported the smallest increase at 0.5%.