The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported an 8.0% year-on-year increase in global passenger demand for July 2024, as measured by revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs). This marks an ongoing recovery and growth in the aviation sector, with capacity rising by 7.4% and a load factor of 86.0%, reflecting a slight increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to July 2023.
International and Domestic Market Highlights:
- International Demand: Increased by 10.1% year-on-year, with capacity up 10.5%. The load factor slightly decreased to 85.9%.
- Domestic Demand: Rose by 4.8% compared to July 2023. Capacity grew by 2.8%, and the load factor improved to 86.1%, up by 1.7 percentage points.
Regional Performance:
- Asia-Pacific: Led growth with a 19.1% increase in international demand. Capacity expanded by 20.3%, with a load factor of 83.8%.
- Europe: Saw an 8.3% rise in demand, with a load factor of 87.5%, maintaining steady growth, particularly on the Europe-Asia route.
- North America: Demand grew by 5.3%, with the highest load factor of 89.4%. Capacity increased by 6.3%.
- Latin America: Recorded a 13.4% rise in demand. Despite Hurricane Beryl’s impact in parts of the Caribbean, the region saw robust growth with a load factor of 87.5%.
- Middle East: Experienced a 5.8% increase in demand, with a load factor of 84.1%.
- Africa: Demand rose by 7.4%, with a load factor of 74.3%, indicating a modest recovery.
Domestic Market Insights:
- Brazil: Continued to lead domestic market growth with an 8.9% increase.
- China: Domestic demand increased by 7.1%, with a notable 4.3 percentage point rise in load factor to 83.4%.
- United States: The largest domestic market, grew by 5.0% with a stable load factor of 88.5%.
Outlook:
Despite some challenges, such as the CrowdStrike IT outage and supply chain issues, the aviation industry continues to see strong demand. With the peak summer season concluding, the industry faces an urgent need to address supply chain bottlenecks to maintain accessibility and affordability in air travel.
