Airline association Iata reported a “strong” recovery in air travel “despite economic headwinds” as it released data on passenger traffic for July.
Iata reported the “willingness to travel remains strong despite high energy prices [and] traffic disruptions” and forecast “the eventual lifting of remaining travel restrictions in Asia Pacific will accelerate” the recovery.
Total traffic in the month was up 59% on July 2021 and reached 76% of pre-crisis levels – up five percentage points on June.
International traffic reached 68% of the July 2019 level, still down by one third on pre-Covid levels, but Iata reported strong growth in all markets led by Asia-Pacific.
Domestic traffic rose 4% year on year and reached 87% of the July 2019 level, with China showing “strong month-to-month improvement” as it eased lockdown restrictions in parts of the country.
Iata director general Willie Walsh hailed the strong performance, noting: “Some markets approached pre-Covid levels even with capacity constraints in parts of the world”.
He said: “There is still ground to recover, but this is an excellent sign as we head into the slower autumn and winter quarters in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region showed the strongest growth in international traffic year on year with an increase in excess of 500% on July 2021. However, traffic remained 65% down on 2019.
Iata noted “the recovery is still lagging in this region” as traffic on routes between Asia-Pacific and other regions of the world remain well down on pre-pandemic levels.
International traffic in Europe reached 80% of the July 2019 level, although Iata reported traffic within Europe dipped 12% below 2019’s level having exceeded pre-pandemic levels in May and June.
Middle East carriers recorded international passenger traffic at 78% of the level of 2019 while North American airlines were at 87%, African at 71% and carriers in Latin America at 76%.
US domestic traffic was at 92% of July 2019, while Brazil’s domestic traffic returned almost to the pre-Covid level at 99% of 2019.
Traffic in India reached 81% of the pre-Covid level and China’s domestic traffic recovered to almost 70% of 2019’s level, a 20-point increase on June.
Recovery in economy class marginally outpaced that in premium with global economy traffic recorded at 71.5% of the January 2020 level compared with not quite 68% in premium.
The global return of airline capacity reached 76% of that available in July 2019.
Walsh looked forward to the forthcoming assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) at the end of September saying: “We’ve set a goal to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
“Governments have the opportunity to support our commitment by agreeing to a Long-Term Aspirational Goal (LTAG) of net zero aviation CO2 emissions by 2050 at the assembly.”
He urged governments to support “the same goal and timeline” so that “we and our partners can move forward with confidence towards a net zero carbon future”.