Global air demand in October fell 70.6 percent year over year, a modest improvement from September's 72.2 percent decline, according to the International Air Transport Association. October global air capacity fell 59.9 percent year over year and load factor dropped 21.8 percentage points to 60.2 percent.
Crossborder air demand in October was down 87.8 percent year over year, unchanged from September's 88 percent drop. Crossborder capacity dropped 76.9 percent year over year. Load factor shrank 38.3 percentage points to 42.0 percent.
Broken down by region, Europe's crossborder demand deteriorated for a second consecutive month, while Latin America's and Africa's accelerated and Asia/Pacific had no improvement, according to IATA. "Fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 and governments' continued reliance on heavy-handed quarantines resulted in another catastrophic month for air travel demand," said IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. "While the pace of recovery is faster in some regions than others, the overall picture for international travel is grim."
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Relative October domestic air demand improved month over month for the second straight month, with October demand down 40.8 percent year over year versus September's 43 percent decline. Domestic crossborder capacity fell 29.7 percent year over year. Load factor dropped 13.2 percentage points to 70.4 percent.
China's domestic demand almost was back to pre-crisis level, according to IATA. Japan and Brazil had robust improvements, and Russia remained resilient. Traffic remains very weak in the United States and Australia, according to IATA.
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