According to Publituris, In October, global air traffic was at 98.2% of pre-pandemic levels, after growth of 31.2% compared to the same month in 2022, which leads IATA – International Air Transport Association to state that “ the ongoing recovery in passenger demand continued into October.”

According to data revealed by IATA on 5 December, the increase in global traffic was dictated by a strong recovery in domestic traffic, which increased 33.7% compared to October 2022, driven by triple-digit growth recorded in China, which led to domestic air transport being 4.8% above the October 2019 result.

International traffic also contributed to the recovery recorded in October, which registered, in the 10th month of the year, an increase of 29.7% compared to the same month last year, reaching 94.4% of October levels 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“October’s strong result brings the industry increasingly closer to completing the post-pandemic traffic recovery”, congratulates Willie Walsh, director general of IATA.

Despite the good results, the head of IATA emphasises that, although international traffic is also recovering, growth is happening “slower”, which is largely attributed to the lower international demand registered by airlines of Asia-Pacific.

“International demand from Asia-Pacific carriers is 19.5% behind 2019. This may reflect the late lifting of COVID restrictions in parts of the region, as well as trade developments and political tensions,” adds the official.

Despite the delay, IATA data shows that, with regard to international traffic, it was in Asia-Pacific airlines that this indicator increased the most in October, rising 80.3% compared to the same month last year, while capacity grew 72.5% and the load factor 3.6 percentage points, standing at 82.9%.

African carriers saw international traffic rise 25.3% in October, while capacity grew 32.4%, which caused a drop of four percentage points in load factor, which dropped to 70.3%, the lowest among all regions in the world.

In the Middle East, international airline traffic increased by 24.1%, with an increase of 22.2% in capacity and a 1.2 percentage point increase in load factor, which rose to 80.6%, with IATA indicating that, in this region , the conflict between Israel and Hamas appears to be causing little impact, despite airlines having reduced their operations in this region.

In Latin America, international traffic also grew by 21.2% in October, while capacity grew at a higher level and increased by 22.3%, which pushed the load factor down by 0.8 percentage points, standing at 85.3%, the highest between all regions.

In North America, international traffic rose 17.5%, exactly the same percentage as capacity increased, resulting in a stable load factor of 83.9%.

In Europe, where international traffic had already recovered much of its 2019 levels, airlines recorded the lowest growth and international traffic rose just 16.1% compared to last year, while capacity rose 14.5% and load factor rose 1.2 points percentages, standing at 85.1%.