Air travel ‘remains robust’

The appetite for air travel remained strong in July, underscoring that global passenger traffic is on course to grow solidly in 2017 as a whole.

The July demand, measured in total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), soared 6.8% over the same month last year.

But growth in that month was down from the 7.7% year-on-year expansion recorded in June, according to new figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). With the stimulus from lower airfares waning, the exceptionally supportive demand backdrop has moderated, it said in its latest market analysis.

The July data further underlined the extent to which the upward trend in seasonally-adjusted passenger traffic has eased from that at the end of last year. Industry-wide RPKs were growing at an annualised rate of more than 12% coming into 2017, but this has since slowed to 6% since May.

All regions reported solid or better growth in passenger volumes over the past year, according to IATA.

Capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, increased by 6.1%, and load factor rose 0.6 percentage points to a July record of 84.7%. International passenger demand rose 6.2% year-on-year, a slowdown compared with the 7.6% growth recorded in June.

Total capacity climbed 5.5%, and load factor edged up 0.5 percentage points to 84.6%. Domestic travel demand grew by 7.9% year-on-year in July, in line with 8% growth recorded in June.