World passenger traffic decline slows but profitability 'distant': IATA
30 Sep 2009
World airline passenger traffic was down 1.1% in August over the same year-ago period but an improvement over the 2.9% year-to-year decline in July, industry trade body IATA has reported. It said though demand continued to improve, profitability remained distant. Freight traffic too improved from a negative11.3% in July to a negative 9.6% in August.
"Demand continues to improve, but profitability remains ever distant," IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement. "Fares have stabilized but at profitless levels."
According to the organization, premium fares were down 22% as compared to August 2008 while economy fares dropped 18%. It also noted that aircraft utilization was down as well.
Regionally, airlines in the Middle East continued to post strong growth, with Europe suffering the most.
Carriers in the Asia/Pacific region turned in a surprisingly strong performance, with August RPKs (Revenue Passenger Kilometre) down just 1.6%, as compared to a 7.6% drop in July, on a 6.1% decrease in capacity.
IATA said this improvement "is somewhat exaggerated as August 2008 was the start of the steep decline in passenger demand for the region's airlines."
RPKs for Latin American carriers fell 2.3%.
It said for the first eight months of the year, world RPKs sank 6% compared to the same period in 2008.