Traffic for national airlines in April exceeded its level for the same month in 2019, for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a world average published Thursday by the main airline association.
Expressed in revenue per passenger kilometer (RPK), one of the industry benchmarks, domestic air traffic reached 102.9% of the April level four years ago, before Covid-19 and its share of restrictions. of movement will not drastically reduce the demand for travel from March 2020, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said in its monthly statistics publication.
China reopening
These ratios were boosted by the vigorous recovery of traffic in China, where the “zero Covid” policy was abandoned at the end of 2022. In RPK, the Middle Kingdom in April reached 106% of April 2019 levels. , an explosion of 536% in one year. In the United States, another important domestic market, airlines registered RPKs of 103.3% compared to the same month four years ago, according to Iata.
However, while international connections resumed more slowly, they have benefited from China’s reopening. Thus, RPKs have tripled in one year in the Asia-Pacific region and the world average of these trips stands at 83.6% of RPKs in 2019.
These high levels are observed despite high inflation, the high price of kerosene and the shortage of spare parts and labor that translate into much more expensive plane tickets than before the crisis. “But as unemployment moves to historically low levels” in OECD countries, “we expect continued demand for air travel, with more and more people earning an income despite their declining purchasing power,” Iata said.
The organization, which holds its general assembly from Sunday to Tuesday in Turkey, in Istanbul, must publish other statistics there, in particular on the financial situation of airlines that the pandemic has caused losses of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Source: BFM TV
