Traffic Demand Recovering Faster than Expected

The growth in demand on international routes continues to be “much faster than anybody would have expected even six months ago,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said this week, as IATA released figures showing another strengthening in traffic in March.

Bisignani cautioned, however, that passenger and freight markets still are 1% below early 2008 highs.

Passenger demand was up 10.3% year-over-year in March, while cargo demand grew 28.1%. That compared to 9% and 26.3% growth, respectively, in February.

The March data, however, are being compared with March 2009, which was the low point for international travel during the recession, IATA notes.

The 10.3% increase in March passenger demand came as capacity rose just 2%, leading to a 78% load factor. Global capacity remains 3% to 4% below what IATA describes as “pre-crisis levels.”

Latin American carriers posted the weakest growth of any region, largely because of the impact of the earthquake in Chile. The year-over-year increase in demand dropped from 8.5% in February to 4.6% in March.

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