African airlines’ best performance since 2012, demand up 7.4%
African airlines had their best performance since 2012, with passenger demand up 7.4 per cent. Growth in the region is underpinned by strong demand on routes to/from the Middle East and Asia, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
The group, in a full year global passenger traffic result it announced for 2016 shows that demand (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 6.3 per cent compared to 2015 (or 6.0 per cent if adjusted for the leap year).
It said capacity exactly matched demand across the region, resulting in an average 67.7 per cent load factor (percentage of capacity taken up by revenue-generating passengers).
According to IATA data, this strong performance was well ahead of the ten-year average annual growth rate of 5.5 per cent.
Capacity rose 6.2 per cent (unadjusted) compared to 2015, pushing the load factor up 0.1 percentage points to a record full-year average high of 80.5 per cent.
IATA stated that a particularly strong performance was reported for December with an 8.8 per cent rise in demand outstripping 6.6 per cent capacity growth.
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IATA, Alexandre de Junaic said, “Air travel was a good news story in 2016. Connectivity increased with the establishment of more than 700 new routes. And a $44 fall in average return fares helped to make air travel even more accessible.”
“As a result, a record 3.7 billion passengers flew safely to their destination. Demand for air travel is still expanding. The challenge for governments is to work with the industry to meet that demand with infrastructure that can accommodate the growth, regulation that facilitates growth and taxes that don’t choke growth. If we can achieve that, there is plenty of potential for a safe, secure and sustainable aviation industry to create more jobs and increase prosperity.”
European carriers’ international traffic climbed 4.8 per cent in 2016. Capacity rose 5.0 per cent and despite a decline of 0.1 percentage points to 82.8 per cent, the load factor remains the highest among the regions.
European carriers particularly benefitted from an improvement in the second half of the year—passenger volumes have been increasing at an average of 15 per cent year-over-year since June, easily compensating for a slight decline over the first six months of 2016.
North American airlines saw demand rise 2.6 per cent in 2016. Most of the growth occurred in the second quarter, and traffic has been strongest on Pacific routes.
The North Atlantic, by contrast, has been fairly flat. Capacity rose 3.3 per cent, reducing the load factor by 0.5 percentage points to 81.3 per cent.
Middle East carriers had the strongest regional annual traffic growth for the fifth year in a row. RPKs expanded 11.8 per cent, consolidating the region’s position as the third-largest market for international passengers.
Capacity growth (13.7 per cent) continued to outstrip demand, with the result that the load factor fell 1.3 percentage points to 74.7 per cent.
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