The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced global passenger traffic results for October showing that demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 7.2 per cent compared to the same month last year.
Capacity grew 6.2 per cent and load factor climbed 0.8 percentage point to 80.8 per cent, which was a record for the month.
October’s performance was a strong bounce-back after the hurricane-related disruptions in September. Domestic and international travel growth largely was in balance.
“As expected, the recent severe weather in the Americas region had only a temporary impact on the healthy travel demand we have seen this year, and we remain on course for another year of above-trend growth,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO.
October international passenger demand rose 7.3 per cent compared to October 2016, which was an improvement compared to the 6.6 per cent demand increase for September. Airlines in all regions recorded growth. Total capacity climbed 6 per cent, and load factor increased 1 percentage point to 79.4 per cent.
Asia-Pacific airlines led all regions with traffic growth of 10.3 per cent compared to the year-ago period, which was up from an 8.7 per cent rise in September. Capacity climbed 8.4 per cent and load factor rose 1.3 percentage points to 78.0 per cent. Seasonally adjusted passenger volumes are rising at an annualised rate of 8-9 per cent, supported by the solid regional economic backdrop and strong growth in the number of connections.
