Demand for Air Travel Decelerates in March

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic results for March showing a moderation of the pace of growth in demand.
 
Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) increased 3.1% compared to March 2013.
 
Although this represented a slowdown in comparison to the February year-over-year traffic increase of 5.6% , cumulative traffic growth for the first quarter of 2014 was 5.6%, which is a slight improvement over the 5.2% overall growth achieved in 2013.
 
“After a number of very strong months we are seeing a slowing of demand growth. The strong performance of advanced economies nevertheless is likely to support the continued growth of traffic in the coming months,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and chief executive officer.
 
International Passenger Markets

International passenger traffic rose 2.6% in March, a significant slowdown compared to the 5.4% increase in February.
 
Capacity rose 5.5% and load factor fell 2.3 percentage points to 78.0%.
 
Most regions experienced a slowdown in year-on-year growth rates.

Asia Pacific carriers experienced some of weakest traffic growth in March with international traffic up just 1.1% compared to a year ago.
 
Part of this is attributable to the relative slowdown in demand after the positive impacts from the Lunar New Year in January/February.
 
But the result is also probably owing to downward pressure from continued weakness in the Chinese economy, as well as a recent contraction in regional trade volumes.
 
Capacity rose 5.3% and load factor fell 3.1 percentage points to 76%.
 
African airlines experienced the only contraction in demand among the regions, with demand down 2.6% from a year ago.
 
The weakness in international air travel could be in part from the adverse economic developments in some parts of the continent, namely the slowdown of South Africa.

Airlines in Africa have seen virtually no growth –only 0.2%– during the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.
 
Commenting on this, Tyler said, “Rising demand for air travel tapered in March, following months of increasing demand. Aviation is crucial for economic expansion and development. But it is up to governments to treat aviation as a partner, not as an easy target for overly excessive taxation and onerous regulation or to have its infrastructure needs neglected. When aviation is treated as an economic enabler the industry is able to rise to its full potential as a key engine of growth and job creation”.
 
Last week, the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) released new research confirming aviation’s important role in driving economic growth. Research conducted by Oxford Economics in ATAG’s Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders publication highlights that globally aviation supports over 58 million jobs and some $2.4 trillion in economic activity (equal to 3.4% of global GDP).
 
“Every day nearly 100,000 flights carry 8.6 million passengers and $17.5 billion of goods to their destination. This activity not only helps to drive economies forward, it enriches the world by bringing people together in a global community,” said Tyler.
 
From 1-3 June 2014 the global aviation community will meet for the IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Doha, Qatar.
 
“Qatar is a great example of a country in which aviation is playing a very strategic role in driving growth and prosperity. It is a great location to remind people of the potential of aviation as the industry celebrates its 100th anniversary,” said Tyler.