IATA Global Airline Traffic Crashing 

 The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published its traffic report for June 2009, showing a 7.2% decline in passenger demand compared to the previous year, while cargo demand is also down by 16.5%.

The 7.2% drop in international passenger demand was a slight improvement on the 9.3% fall in May. However, a capacity adjustment of -4.3% did not keep pace with the fall in demand, leaving average fares and yields under significant pressure.

Cargo demand remained weak at 16.5% below June 2008 levels. This is a moderate improvement, albeit from extremely weak levels, over May, which was 17.4% below 2008 levels. There has been some improvement in world trade and, after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, freight volumes rose 6% from the low point recorded in December 2008.

However, the utilisation of air freight capacity on international routes remained very weak (47.3%) in June due to unbalanced trade flows with Asia and some market share loss to ocean transport.

“International passenger demand remains very weak,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO.

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