Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has launched a spirited defense of commercial air travel. Walsh's defense is contained in IATA's latest Air Passenger Market analysis, released last Thursday.

The IATA report showed that air travel's recovery, as measured by revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), continued in October and, by the end of the month, had returned to 74.2% of 2019 levels. RPKs in October grew by 44.6% compared to October 2021 (year-on-year), and since June have grown globally by an average of 1.7% per month.

Domestic traffic decreased slightly in October, at 77.9% of October 2019. However, the gain came in international passenger traffic, which more than doubled year-on-year, bounding back to 72.1% of October 2019 figures.

Asia-Pacific is still lagging behind

Air China (Smiling China Livery) Boeing 777-39L(ER) B-2035 (3)
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The lag in Asia-Pacific is well known, but with border restrictions virtually gone, except for China, international traffic within Asia is at 69.2% of October 2019 levels. Asia-Pacific is the region at the bottom of the table, with international RPKs at 56.6% below October 2019. Leading the way is North America, which is back to 90% of international RPKs, followed by the Middle East (86%), Latin America (84.9%), Europe (82.4%), Africa (75.1%) and Asia-Pacific (44.4%).

In his commentary, Walsh said that strong demand and forward bookings in the slower autumn travel season bode well for the coming winter season and the ongoing recovery. He cited a survey of European business leaders involved in cross-border commerce, which showed 84% could not do so without access to air transport networks. Furthermore, 89% believed that being close to an airport with global connections gave them a competitive advantage. He added:

"Governments need to pay attention to the message that air travel is fundamental to how we live and work. That reality should drive policies to enable aviation to operate as efficiently as possible while supporting the industry's 2050 Net Zero emission goals with meaningful incentives to encourage the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels."

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USA is a clear leader in domestic

American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner N839AA
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

On the domestic side, RPKs dropped by 0.8% year-on-year and globally stood at 77.9% of October 2019. The USA is the leader among the IATA-monitored countries, sitting at 99.2% of pre-pandemic numbers. At the other end of the scale, China is at 30.6%, declining in October as harsher travel restrictions were introduced. Domestic Brazil has reached 92.8%, Japan 88.3%, India 87.8% and Australia 84.2% of October 2019 traffic.

With airlines holding back or simply not having extra capacity, ticket prices and passenger load factors (PLFs) continue to climb. Globally, PLFs are at 82%, with international at 82.1% and domestic at 81.9%. Latin America leads the way in international markets with a PLF of 86%, while domestically, the US is number one at 87.8%. While Asia-Pacifc is well down on RPKs, it is doing a good job of matching capacity to demand with a load factor of 77.7%. At just 65.2%, domestic China has recorded the lowest PLF in the IATA October report.

IATA says forward bookings have increased to around 75% of pre-pandemic levels for international travel, while domestic bookings remain close to 70%.

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