IATA reports 5.9% growth in July

The International Air Transport Association announced traffic results for July, which showed passenger travel was up 5.9% over July 2010.

Freight markets were stagnating with a 0.4% demand decline over previous year levels.

“Passenger travel bucked the gloomy economic outlook with a 5.9% increase in July. This increase was likely based on the much more optimistic economic outlook that marked the beginning of the year,” said IATA’s director general and CEO, Tony Tyler.

“With business and consumer confidence now tanking, sluggishness in international trade, and high fuel prices, the expectation is for a weaker end to the year. We are already seeing this in the shrinking air freight markets, which were 0.4% down on the previous year.”

International passenger markets, which grew by 7.3% compared with July 2010, remain stronger on average than domestic markets which showed weaker growth of 3.5% year over year.

Compared to pre-recession levels of early 2008, international passenger traffic has expanded by 12%. Had the industry continued to grow at the pre-recession pace of 8%, international markets would have been about 14% higher than today’s levels and a quarter higher than pre-recession level. This confirms that the global financial crisis has cost airlines about two full years of growth, IATA reported.

Load factors for the overall market (domestic plus international) improved by half a percentage point over July 2010 to 83.1%. This is equal to the highs recorded in Q3 2010. North American carriers (86.9%) and European carriers (84.1%) were in the lead. Latin American carriers saw the biggest improvement (from 76.5% last July to 79.6% this year).

Source - ttrweekly