Airlines globally had "a particularly strong
performance" in December, as demand rose 8.8 percent and capacity grew 6.6
percent year over year, according to the International Air Transport Association.
For international travel, traffic growth outpaced capacity
growth in each of the six regions IATA tracks. Traffic grew by double-digit
percentages in the Middle East, Asia/Pacific and Europe.
On domestic routes, December traffic increased across all
major markets except Brazil, where traffic declined 1.9 percent year over year
but a 4.3 percent reduction in capacity resulted in load factor growth. The U.S.
was the only market in which capacity outpaced traffic, pushing load factor
down 0.3 percentage points to 83.9 percent.
For
the full year, global air traffic increased 6.3 percent compared with 2015,
slightly above the capacity growth rate of 6.2 percent. As such, full-year load
factor increased 0.1 percentage points to 80.5 percent, a record high,
according to IATA.