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Global air traffic demand grew in 2019, but at the slowest pace since 2009, said IATA.
Airlines flew paying passengers 4.2% further in 2019 than they did in 2018, a metric known as revenue passenger miles. That’s compared with growth of 7.3% in 2018. Last year was the first since the global financial crisis in 2009 when passenger demand grew less than the long-term trend of 5.5%.
“Airlines did well to maintain steady growth last year in the face of a number of challenges,” said IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. “A softer economic backdrop, weak global trade activity, and political and geopolitical tensions took their toll on demand.”
But de Juniac noted that airline load factors reached an all-time high last year. He attributed the record 82.6% load factor, up 0.7 percentage points from 2018, to astute capacity management and the Boeing 737 Max grounding.
Airline capacity in 2019 increased 3.4%.
North American airlines saw demand growth of 3.9% last year, down from 5% in 2018. Capacity rose 2.2% and the load factor increased 1.3 percentage points, to 84%. De Juniac said a softer U.S. economy and weakened business confidence caused the slowing growth.
U.S domestic flight demand rose 4.5% on 3.5% capacity growth. Load factor on domestic flights was 85.5%.
Source: travelweekly.com