Air passenger traffic up 6.8% in May, says IATA

PETALING JAYA: Air traffic results for May shows an increase of 6.8% in passenger traffic over May 2010, says International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In a statement yesterday, it said the increase was 4% higher than the beginning of the year.

It said freight traffic showed a 4% drop against the post-recession peak of the re-stocking cycle in May 2010. However, recent months show a renewed uptrend, with freight volumes 2% higher than the start of the year.

“We saw positive developments for air transport volumes in May. International passenger load factors rebounded by 0.8 percentage points to 75.8%. Freight volumes improved by 1.2% over April and passenger volumes were up by 1.8%.
People watch as an aircraft takes off from Hong Kong international airport. — AFP

“These will help to alleviate some of the pressures on profits from continued high fuel prices,” said director-general and chief executive officer Giovanni Bisignani.

However, he said there were risks associated with political unrest in the Middle East and the European currency crisis.

“We still expect the industry to make US$4bil this year. That is a pathetic 0.7% margin and another shock could alter the industry's fortunes dramatically. It's another tough year for a very fragile industry,” he said.

IATA said in terms of international passenger markets by region, Asia-Pacific carriers recorded an expansion of 4.7%, considerably below the global average of 8%.

This is due to continuing weakness in the post-earthquake/tsunami Japanese market.

Compared with May 2010, capacity expanded 5% and load factor fell slightly to 73.4%.

“European carriers' traffic expanded by 10.9%, boosted by increased northern European economic activity and a weaker euro encouraging trade and inbound travel. Capacity expanded by 10.6%, second only to Latin America and the load factor strengthened to 77.7%,” it said.

Latin American carriers saw the fastest international growth, up 21.3% compared with May 2010, and the fastest capacity expansion (15.2%). This was a consequence of strong economic growth and increased travel and trade flows to North America and across the Pacific. The load factor was just above the industry average at 76%.

North American carriers had cut capacity for two consecutive months (minus 0.4% in April and minus 0.5% in May). Year-on-year, traffic was up 4.5% and capacity increased by 5.5%. The largest fall was for Asia-Pacific carriers with a 9.2% drop, showing the impact of disrupted supply chains in Japan and tighter economic policies in China, IATA said.