Domestic Travel Has Fully Recovered: IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that the strong demand for passenger traffic continued in April, indicating a positive trend for the aviation industry that was forecasted since January 2023. 

In April 2023, total traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), increased by 45.8% compared to April 2022. Globally, traffic has reached 90.5% of pre-COVID-19 levels. The industry load factor stood at 81.3%, only 1.8% below the pre-pandemic level, while domestic traffic experienced a significant rise of 42.6% compared to the same period last year, fully recovering and even surpassing the results from April 2019 with a 2.9% increase, explained IATA via a press release. 

International traffic surged 48.0% in comparison to April 2022, with all markets recording healthy growth and carriers in the Asia-Pacific region leading the recovery with international RPKs reaching 83.6% of April 2019 levels.

Willie Walsh, Director General, IATA, highlighted the continuation of the strong traffic trend seen in 1Q23, which was attributed to the easing of inflation, rising consumer confidence in most OECD countries and declining jet fuel prices. These factors support sustained strong air travel demand and a moderation in cost pressures.

North American carriers grew 34.8% in traffic during April 2023 compared to the same period in 2022 and capacity increased by 26.5%. The load factor rose by 5.2% and reached 83.8%, which is the highest among all regions. IATA highlighted that North American international traffic has fully recovered, surpassing April 2019 levels by 0.4% in terms of RPKs. 

Latin American airlines saw a traffic increase of 25.8% compared to the same month in 2022, and a capacity climb of 26.4%. However, the load factor experienced a decrease of 0.4%, settling at 83.1%.

In January 2023, IATA noted that global passenger traffic continues to follow a road to recovering pre-pandemic levels and forecasted strong spring and summer seasons. IATA announced that air travel demand recovered and reported positive traffic results for January 2023, when global passenger traffic stood at 84.2% of January 2019 levels and highlighted that several markets were off to a healthy start at the beginning of 2023, as reported by MBN. 

Mexico’s aviation industry has also recovered from the pandemic, as reported by MBN. During the first two months of 2023, Mexican airports grew in passenger traffic by 28.2% year over year for a total of 28.93 million passengers, reports the Federal Agency of Civil Aviation (AFAC).