Asia-Pacific carriers show decline in April load factor: IATA

June 3, 2019: Slowdown in global trade, including the China-US trade tensions on the broader region, continued to weigh on passenger demand as Asia-Pacific carriers' traffic rise in April was well below the the long-term average at 2.9 percent, up from 2 percent growth in March.

According to data released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), capacity climbed 3.7 percent and load factor dropped 0.6 percentage point to 80.8 percent. Asia-Pacific was the only region to experience a decline in load factor compared to the same month a year ago.

European airlines led the recorded year-over-year air traffic increases, announced the IATA. It represents some 290 airlines comprising 82 percent of global air traffic.

IATA said April international passenger demand rose 5.1 percent compared to April 2018 and all regions recorded year-over-year traffic increases. Total capacity climbed 3.8 percent, and load factor climbed 1.1 percentage points to 82.5 percent.

According to IATA, global passenger traffic results for April 2019 show that demand (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose by 4.3 percent compared to April 2018. April capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 3.6 percent. Load factor surpassed April 2018's record of 82.2 percent and climbed 0.6 percentage point to 82.8 percent. Record load factors were reported by the regions of Africa, Europe and Latin America.

“We experienced solid but not exceptional rising demand for air connectivity in April. This partly is owing to the timing of Easter, but also reflects the slowing global economy. Driven by tariffs and trade disputes, global trade is falling, and as a result, we are not seeing traffic growing at the same levels as a year ago. However, airlines are doing a very good job of managing aircraft utilization, leading to record load factors.” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO.