Asia Pacific air travel sustains uptrend in April

MANILA, Philippines - International air travel in the Asia-Pacific region has sustained its upward trend due to the increase in direct airport connections and strong growth of its key routes, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported.

Latest data from IATA showed that April traffic for Asia-Pacific based airlines rose 6.4 percent compared to year-ago figures as capacity increased 6.8 percent but load factor went down to 77.3 percent.

“Slower economic growth in many of the region’s economies has been at least partly offset by an increase in direct airport connections that has helped to stimulate demand,” IATA director general and chief executive officer Tony Tyler said.

Meanwhile, global passenger traffic for April recorded the slowest growth pace since January 2015 for both domestic and international traffic with total revenue passenger kilometers rising 4.6 percent.

International passenger demand increased 4.8 percent, the slowest in two years, while capacity increased five percent and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 79.1 percent.

“There are some longer-term clouds over the pace of demand growth. The stimulus from lower oil prices appears to be tapering off. And the global economic situation is subdued. Demand is still growing, but we may be shifting down a gear,” Tyler said.

Furthermore, Middle East carriers posted a 12.7 percent increase year-on-year, the largest among all regions, on the back of its carriers’ network and fleet expansion.

African airlines continue to enjoy strong demand with traffic growth at 10 percent as the region’s carriers continue to expand their long-haul networks.

Likewise, traffic in Latin America climbed 3.1 percent in April suggesting a pause in the upward trend of domestic traffic for the region’s carriers.

European carriers saw traffic increase 1.8 percent as a reflection of the impact of the Brussels terror attacks, which closed the airport for nearly two weeks.

On the other hand, airlines in North America saw the slowest growth in international traffic at 1.1 percent as traffic levels remain low on a seasonally-adjusted basis.