The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported that global passenger traffic increased by 6.3% in 2016 and was significantly ahead of the 5.5% ten-year average annual growth, as industry capacity rose 6.2% and load factors edged up 0.1 percentage points to a 12-month average high of 80.5%.

 

IATA points to a particularly strong 8.8% increase in passenger numbers in December, with demand said to have outstripped the 6.6% capacity growth level.

 

Commenting on the results, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO 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 3.7bn 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.

 

STRIKING A GOOD BALANCE

“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.”

 

Looking at the international passenger market sector, traffic increased by 6.7% in 2016 and capacity by 6.9%, while the aggregated load factor fell by 0.2 percentage points to 79.6%. Nevertheless, all regions reported year-over-year increases in demand.

 

IATA said: “Asia Pacific carriers recorded a demand increase of 8.3% compared to 2015, which was the second-fastest increase among the regions. This pace is considerably ahead of the five-year growth average of 6.9%. Capacity rose 7.7%, pushing up the load factor 0.4 percentage points to 78.6%.

 

“European carriers’ international traffic climbed 4.8% in 2016. Capacity rose 5.0% and despite a decline of 0.1 percentage points to 82.8%, the load factor remains the highest among the regions.

 

“European carriers particularly benefited from an improvement in the second half of the year – passenger volumes have been increasing at an average of 15% year-over-year since June, easily compensating for a slight decline over the first six months of 2016.”

 

ENCOURAGING RESULTS IN LATIN AMERICA

IATA added that North American airline demand rose 2.6% in 2016, while Middle East carriers recorded the strongest regional annual traffic growth for the fifth year in a row. There was also further good news in The Americas as Latin American airline traffic rose by 7.4%.

 

Interestingly, IATA adds: “International traffic from Latin America remains very healthy despite some economic and political uncertainty in the region’s largest market, Brazil.”

 

African airlines also demonstrated their best growth performance since 2012, up by 7.4% with growth said to come from the strong demand on routes to/from Asia and the Middle East.

 

DOMESTIC TRAFFIC ALSO IN GOOD GROWTH….

Last, but not least, domestic air travel rose by 5.7% in 2016, as capacity rose by 5.1% and the load factor rose 5.5 percentage points to 82.2%.

 

IATA says that all major markets except Brazil showed growth, although it singled out India and China as the stand-out performers: “These markets have been underpinned by additional routes and increasing flight frequencies, with the latter looking set to continue in 2017,” it said.

 

[Brazil’s domestic air travel was the only market to show a decline in 2016 of -5.5%, reflecting the country’s economic situation].