Global air demand rose 4.3 percent year over year in April, according to the International Air Transport Association. Capacity increased 3.6 percent. Load factor climbed 0.6 percentage points to 82.8 percent, a record for the month of April.
Crossborder passenger demand rose 5.1 percent year over year. Crossborder capacity climbed 3.8 percent, and load factor rose 1.1 percentage points to 82.5 percent. Regionally, Africa, Europe and Latin America had record load factors.
Domestic passenger demand rose 2.8 percent year over year in April. Capacity increased 3.2 percent, and load factor fell 0.3 percentage points to 83.2 percent.
"We experienced solid but not exceptional rising demand for air connectivity in April. This partly is owing to the timing of Easter but also reflects the slowing global economy," said IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. "Driven by tariffs and trade disputes, global trade is falling, and as a result, we are not seeing traffic growing at the same levels as a year ago. However, airlines are doing a very good job of managing aircraft utilization, leading to record load factors."
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