The world’s airlines saw a slowdown in passenger demand in March 2016.
According to the latest data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) rose 5.3% year-on-year in March – slower than the 7.2% and 8.6% growth seen in January and February 2016 respectively.
And the demand growth in March also failed to match the 5.9% rise in capacity, causing average load factors to decline to 79.6%.
International passenger demand rose 6.2% in March 2016, significantly slower than the 9.1% increase seen in February. International traffic on Asia Pacific airlines rose 6.0%, while European carriers saw a 5.5% increase. But North American airlines’ international traffic edged up just 0.7% year-on-year, the slowest pace since April 2013.
And passenger demand saw a more dramatic deceleration on domestic routes, with a 3.7% increase in March 2016 compared to 7.8% growth in February. This was primarily due to the subdued performance of the world’s two largest domestic air travel markets, the US and China.
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