Global airline passenger traffic exceeded 4 billion in 2017-IATA
- Cargo up 9.9%
The International Air Transport Association’s (IATA), which has released its 2017 World Air Transport Statistics. They indicate annual airline passenger numbers exceeded four billion for the first time.
This information is included in the recently released 62nd Edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS), the yearbook of the airline industry’s performance.
Over the same period, airlines connected a record number of destinations in 2017, providing regular services to over 20,000 city pairs – which more than doubles the 1995 level.
Africa accounts for 2.2% of the global market with 88.5 million passengers, representing a 6.6 per cent rise over the previous year.
Globally, air cargo markets saw a 9.9% expansion in the amount of freight flown, outstripping a 5.3 per cent increase in capacity.
Star Alliance (which includes Africa’s South African Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and EgyptAir) maintained its position as the largest airline alliance with 39 per cent of all scheduled airline traffic. SkyTeam (which includes Kenya Airways) followed with 33% per cent and Oneworld with 28 per cent.
In 2000, the average citizen flew just once every 43 months. In 2017, the figure was once every 22 months. Flying has never been more accessible. And this is liberating people to explore more of our planet for work, leisure and education. Aviation is the business of freedom,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
Highlights of the 2017 airline industry performance:
Passenger
- System-wide, airlines carried 4.1 billion passengers on scheduled services, an increase of 7.3% over 2016, representing an additional 280 million trips by air.
- Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region once again carried the largest number of passengers. The regional rankings (based on total passengers carried on scheduled services by airlines registered in that region) are:
1. Asia-Pacific 36.3% market share (1.5 billion passengers, an increase of 10.6% compared to the region’s passengers in 2016)
2. Europe 26.3% market share (1.1 billion passengers, up 8.2% over 2016)
3. North America 23% market share (941.8 million, up 3.2% over 2016)
4. Latin America 7% market share (286.1 million, up 4.1% over 2016)
5. Middle East 5.3% market share (216.1 million, an increase of 4.6% over 2016)
6. Africa 2.2% market share (88.5 million, up 6.6% over 2016). - The top five airlines ranked by total scheduled passenger kilometers flown, were:
1. American Airlines (324 million)
2. Delta Air Lines (316.3 million)
3. United Airlines (311 million)
4. Emirates Airline (289 million)
5. Southwest Airlines (207.7 million) - The top five international/regional passenger airport-pairs were all within the Asia-Pacific region, again this year:
1. Hong Kong-Taipei Taoyuan (5.4 million, up 1.8% from 2016)
2. Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta-Singapore (3.3 million, up 0.8% from 2016)
3. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hong Kong (3.1 million, increase of 3.5% from 2016)
4. Kuala Lumpur–Singapore (2.8 million, down. 0.3% from 2016)
5. Hong Kong-Seoul Incheon (2.7 million, down 2.2% from 2016) - The top five domestic passenger airport-pairs were also all in the Asia-Pacific region:
1. Jeju-Seoul Gimpo (13.5 million, up 14.8 per cent over 2016)
2. Melbourne Tullamarine-Sydney (7.8 million, up 0.4 per cent from 2016)
3. Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda (7.6 million, an increase of 6.1 per cent from 2016)
4. Sapporo-Tokyo Haneda (7.4 million, up 4.6 per cent from 2016)
5. Beijing Capital-Shanghai Hongqiao (6.4 million, up 1.9 per cent from 2016) - One of the interesting recent additions to the WATS report is the ranking of passenger traffic by nationality, for international and domestic travel. (Nationality refers to the passenger’s citizenship as opposed to the country of residence.)
1. United States of America (632 million, representing 18.6% of all passengers)
2. People’s Republic of China (555 million or 16.3 per cent of all passengers)
3. India (161.5 million or 4.7 per cent of all passengers)
4. United Kingdom (147 million or 4.3 per cent of all passengers)
5. Germany (114.4 million or 3.4% of all passengers)
Cargo
- Globally, cargo markets showed a 9.9 per cent expansion in freight and mail tonne kilometers (FTKs). This outstripped a capacity increase of 5.3 per cent increasing freight load factor by 2.1 per cent.
- The top five airlines ranked by scheduled freight tonne kilometers flown were:
1. Federal Express (16.9 billion)
2. Emirates (12.7 billion)
3. United Parcel Service (11.9 billion)
4. Qatar Airways (11 billion)
5. Cathay Pacific Airways (10.8 billion)
