The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced continued strong growth in air travel demand, based on February 2023 traffic results.
Total traffic in February 2023 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 55.5% compared to February 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 84.9% of February 2019 levels.
Domestic traffic for February rose 25.2% compared to the year-ago period. Total February 2023 domestic traffic was at 97.2% of the February 2019 level.
International traffic climbed 89.7% versus February 2022 with all markets recording strong growth, led once again by carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. International RPKs reached 77.5% of February 2019 levels.
“Despite the uncertain economic signals, demand for air travel continues to be strong across the globe and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The industry is now just about 15% below 2019 levels of demand and that gap is narrowing each month,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
Air passenger market in detail
| FEBRUARY 2023 (% YEAR-ON-YEAR) | WORLD SHARE1 | RPK | ASK | PLF(%-PT)2 | PLF(LEVEL)3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total Market
|
100%
|
55.5%
|
35.7%
|
9.9%
|
77.8%
|
|
Africa
|
2.1%
|
87.9%
|
62.3%
|
10.3%
|
75.6%
|
|
Asia Pacific
|
22.1%
|
105.4%
|
61.2%
|
17.1%
|
79.2%
|
|
Europe
|
30.7%
|
44.1%
|
27.9%
|
8.5%
|
75.2%
|
|
Latin America
|
6.4%
|
23.7%
|
21.1%
|
1.7%
|
81.1%
|
|
Middle East
|
9.8%
|
70.6%
|
37.6%
|
15.4%
|
79.8%
|
|
North America
|
28.9%
|
25.1%
|
19.0%
|
3.8%
|
77.1%
|
1) % of industry RPKs in 2022 2) Year-on-year change in load factor 3) Load Factor Level
International Passenger Markets
African airlines’ traffic rose 90.7% in February 2023 versus a year ago. February capacity was up 61.7% and load factor climbed 11.4 percentage points to 75.0%.
Air passenger market overview
| FEBRUARY 2023 (% CH VS SAME MONTH IN 2019) | WORLD SHARE1 | RPK | ASK | PLF (%-PT)2 | PLF (LEVEL)3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total Market
|
100.0%
|
-15.1%
|
-12.0%
|
-2.9%
|
77.8%
|
|
International
|
57.9%
|
-22.5%
|
-20.6%
|
-1.9%
|
77.7%
|
|
Domestic
|
42.1%
|
-2.8%
|
3.1%
|
-4.7%
|
77.9%
|
1) % of industry RPKs in 2022 2) Change in load factor 3) Load Factor Level
The Bottom Line
“People are flying in ever greater numbers. With the Easter and Passover holidays we are expecting large numbers of travelers to take to the skies in many parts of the world. They should do so with confidence that airlines have been rebuilding resiliency that suffered owing to the pandemic. Other participants in the air travel value chain, including airports, air navigation service providers, and airport security staff, need to have the same commitment to ensuring our customers can enjoy smooth holiday travel,” said Walsh.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for February 2023 global air cargo markets showing that air cargo demand rose above pre-pandemic levels.
Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), fell 7.5% compared to February 2022 (-8.3% for international operations). This was half the rate of annual decline seen in the previous two months (-14.9% and -15.3% respectively). February demand for air cargo was 2.9% higher than pre-pandemic levels (February 2019)—the first time it has surpassed pre-pandemic levels in eight months.
Capacity (measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers, ACTK) was up 8.6% compared to February 2022. The strong uptick in ACTKs reflects the addition of belly capacity as the passenger side of the business continues to recover. International belly-capacity grew by 57.0% in February year-over-year, reaching 75.1% of the 2019 (pre-pandemic) capacity.
Several factors in the operating environment should be noted:
- The global new export orders component of the manufacturing PMI, a leading indicator of cargo demand, continued to increase in February. China’s PMI level surpassed the critical 50-mark indicating that demand for manufactured goods from the world’s largest export economy is growing.
- Global goods trade decreased by 1.5% in January; this was a slower rate of decline than the previous month of -3.3%.
- The Consumer Price Index for G7 countries decreased from 6.7% in January to 6.4% in February. Inflation in producer (input) prices reduced by 2.2 percentage points to 9.6% in December (last available data).
”The story of air cargo in February is one of slowing declines. Year-on-year demand fell by 7.5%. That’s half the rate of decline experienced in January. This shifting of gears was sufficient to boost the overall industry into positive territory (+2.9%) compared to pre-pandemic levels. An optimistic eye could see the start of an improvement trend that leads to market stabilization and a return to more normal demand patterns after dramatic ups-and-downs in recent years,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
Air cargo market in detail
FEBRUARY 2023 (% YEAR ON YEAR) |
WORLD SHARE1 | CTK | ACTK | CLF(%-PT)2 | CLF(LEVEL)3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total Market |
100.0% |
-7.5% |
8.6% |
-7.9% |
45.6% |
|
Africa |
2.0% |
-3.4% |
4.7% |
-3.9% |
46.8% |
|
Asia Pacific |
32.4% |
-6.0% |
19.9% |
-12.8% |
46.4% |
|
Europe |
21.8% |
-15.3% |
-1.5% |
-9.4% |
57.4% |
|
Latin America |
2.7% |
-2.7% |
27.6% |
-11.2% |
36.1% |
|
Middle East |
13.0% |
-8.1% |
9.3% |
-8.4% |
44.5% |
|
North America |
28.1% |
-3.2% |
2.8% |
-2.5% |
40.0% |
1) % of industry CTKs in 2022 2) Year-on-year change in load factor 3) Load Factor Level
February Regional Performance
African airlines saw cargo volumes decrease by 3.4% in February 2023 compared to February 2022. This was an improvement in performance compared to the previous month (-9.5%). Notably, the Africa to Asia route area experienced significant cargo demand growth in February, up 39.5% year-on-year. Capacity was 4.7% above February 2022 levels.