Recovery of global air demand continued in August, with traffic levels, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, up 28.4 percent year over year, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Global traffic in August reached 95.7 percent of August 2019 levels, a figure up a tick from July's 95.6 percent level versus pre-pandemic levels. Capacity was up 24.9 percent versus a year prior and was just 3.1 percent below the August 2019 level.
August domestic air demand continued to surpass pre-pandemic levels by 9.2 percent and was up 25.4 percent compared with August 2022. The gains largely were driven by Chinese domestic demand, according to IATA. International traffic in August rose 30.4 percent year over year and reached 88.5 percent of August 2019 levels.
"Demand for air travel performed well in August," IATA director general Willie Walsh said in a statement. "For the year to date, international traffic has increased by 50 percent versus last year, and ticket sales data show international bookings strengthening for travel in the last part of the year."
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China continued to lead the August domestic market increases with a gain of 93.6 percent year over year. India's demand, with an increase of 23.2 percent versus August 2022, exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the seventh month in a row. Japan's domestic market was affected by Typhoon Khanun and saw capacity down 7 percent versus a year prior. Total domestic capacity was up 21.1 percent year over year, representing a 12.1 percent increase over August 2019 levels.
August international capacity was up 27.5 percent versus a year prior, but it was still about 11.2 percent below August 2019 levels. North American load factor increased 0.8 percentage points year over year to 87.7 percent, the highest among the regions for the third month in a row, according to IATA. The next highest load factor was for Europe at 86.8 percent, an increase of 1.1 percentage points. Asia-Pacific reported the highest load-factor increase at 5.5 percentage points to 84.2 percent.
"Heading into the last quarter of the year, the airline industry is nearly fully recovered to 2019 levels of demand," Walsh said. "The focus, however, has not been on getting back to a specific number of passengers or flights, but rather on meeting the demand by businesses and individuals for connectivity that was artificially suppressed for more than two years."
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