Global airline passenger traffic reached 99% of 2019 levels in November

Global passenger traffic was within 1 percentage point of 2019 levels in November last year, according to the latest data from IATA, as it closes on the pre-Covid peak. The airline association’s monthly figures have shown traffic and capacity inching back towards parity with 2019 during 2023, and the data released on 10 January continues that trend. That parity and growth beyond it – which are expected in 2024 data – have been much-discussed milestones during the industry’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, albeit it will still leave the sector significantly short of where it would have been in 2024 without three years of lost growth. “We are moving ever closer to surpassing the 2019 peak year for air travel,” says IATA director general Willie Walsh. “Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies.” Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), global traffic was 0.9% down on 2019, the data for November shows, with capacity measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs) some 1.8% lower on the same basis. Within the traffic data, international RPKs were 5.5% below November 2019, while domestic traffic was up 6.7%. Overall traffic among African carriers (-0.9%), Asia-Pacific airlines (-6.8%) and European carriers (-1.9%) continued to lag 2019 levels in November, while Latin American (+4.0%), Middle Eastern (+1.3%) and North American (+8.2%) airlines all reported RPKs above pre-Covid levels.<br/>