Global passenger air traffic continued to grow in August, and has now recovered to 95,7% of 2019 pre-COVID levels, reports Iata.
Total traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) increased 28,4% year-on-year (YoY) in August.
Available seat-kilometres (a measure of an airline's carrying capacity to generate revenue, taken by multiplying the available seats on any given aircraft by the number of kilometres flown on a given flight) rose at a slower annual pace of 24,9%, lifting passenger load factors (PLF) close to pre-pandemic levels.
The PLF in August was 84,6%, 1,1 percentage points lower than the PLF for the same month in 2019.
Domestic passenger traffic grew 9,2% over pre-pandemic levels. Most monitored markets saw stable growth in domestic traffic, while Japan experienced disruption due to Typhoon Khanun.
The recovery of international RPKs remained at 88,5% of 2019 levels. Regions experienced different outcomes while Asia Pacific carriers continued to restore international traffic.
African carriers saw 26,1% YoY growth in international RPKs in August. The region’s traffic levels are still approaching full recovery, maintaining the upward trends observed since earlier this year.
