African airlines experience 7.4% traffic increase

African airlines experienced a 7.4 per cent increase in traffic compared to a year ago but this relates mainly to the strong upward trend in seasonally-adjusted traffic during the second half of 2015. Capacity rose 5.9 per cent, and load factor climbed 1.0 percentage point to 72.4 per cent, lowest among regions.

This was disclosed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when it announced global passenger traffic results for July showing acceleration in demand growth over the previous five months. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 5.9 per cent, compared to the same month last year, with all regions reporting growth.

 

 Monthly capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 6.0 per cent, and load factor was 83.7 per cent – just 0.1 percentage point below the record July high achieved in 2015.

 

IATA Director-General, Alexandre de Juniac said July saw demand strengthen, after a softening in June.

 

He noted that demand was stimulated by lower fares which, in turn, were supported by lower oil prices. And near record high load factors demonstrate that people want to travel.

 

“But, there are some important sub-plots to the narrative of strong demand. Long-haul travel to Europe, for example, suffered in the aftermath of a spate of terrorist attacks. And the mature domestic markets are seeing demand growth stall while Brazil and Russia contract.”

European carriers saw July demand increased by 4.1 per cent compared to a year ago, which was the slowest among the regions. Demand has been affected by the recent terrorist attacks as well as political instability in parts of the region: traffic has grown at an annualized rate of just 1.4 per cent since March.

Capacity climbed 4.7 per cent and load factor dipped 0.5 percentage points to 86.7 per cent, which was still the highest among regions.

North American airlines’ traffic climbed 4.8 per cent, while capacity rose 5.1 per cent with the result that load factor fell 0.3 percentage points to 86.1 per cent. Seasonally adjusted volumes have risen at an annualized rate of more than 8 per cent since March helped by transpacific and leisure traffic to Central America and the Caribbean.