Global air passenger demand continued to increase in April, in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. (IATA is the representative body for the global airline industry.) Total passenger demand was up 11%, with international demand rising 15.8% and domestic demand increasing 4%. Total capacity rose 9.6%, with international capacity increasing by 14.8% and domestic capacity by 2.1%.

The total global load factor in April was 82.4%, which was a one percentage point (ppt) increase, y-o-y. The international load factor was 82.2% (up 0.7 ppt) and the domestic load factor reached 82.6% (a rise of 1.5 ppt).

“Passenger demand has been growing for 36 consecutive months,” highlighted IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “As we enter the peak northern summer travel season, there is every reason to feel optimistic for a strong summer with airlines offering a wide range of travel options. 97% of passengers asked in our recent survey said they were satisfied with their last flight. Every part of the travel value chain needs to be focused on maintaining that.”

In terms of total demand, the region that saw the greatest increase was the Asia-Pacific, at 17.4%. But Africa was in second place, with an increase of 15.7%. Then came the Middle East (14.1%), followed by Europe (9.3%), Latin America (8%) and North America (4.2%).

Regarding international passenger traffic, Asian-Pacific airlines were again in the lead, with a jump in demand of 32.1%. African operators again came second, with an increase of 15.5%. Latin American carriers came next, with a rise of 14.5%. Middle Eastern airlines followed closely behind, with 14.2%, then European carriers (10.1%) and North American operators (6.5%).

In terms of domestic air passenger travel, the six markets IATA regularly tracked were Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan and the US. These together accounted for 78.8% of domestic air travel demand, worldwide. Of these, Australia saw the largest y-o-y increase in April, with a figure of 6.9%, followed by Brazil at 6.5%, then China (4.2%), the US (3.2%), India (2.7%) and Japan (0.1%).

“It is critically important that we achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 so that people can continue to rely on all the benefits of air travel,” asserted Walsh.