December global air demand and full-year 2023 traffic each continued to march toward 2019 levels, the International Air Transport Association announced Wednesday.
December 2023 total demand increased 25.3 percent year over year and was at 97.5 percent of December 2019 levels, according to IATA. For the full year, demand was up 36.9 percent compared with 2022, reaching 94.1 percent of 2019 levels.
Domestic December traffic increased 27 percent versus a year prior and was 2.3 percent above December 2019. For full-year 2023, domestic traffic climbed 30.4 percent year over year and was 3.9 percent above the demand for full-year 2019.
International December demand increased 24.2 percent year over year, reaching 94.7 percent of December 2019 levels. Full-year traffic jumped 41.6 percent versus 2022 and was at 88.6 percent of 2019 levels.
"The strong post-pandemic rebound continued in 2023," IATA director general Willie Walsh said in a statement. "December traffic stood just 2.5 percent below 2019 levels, with a strong performance in quarter four, teeing up airlines for a return to normal growth patterns in 2024."
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Asia-Pacific led December regional increases in international demand and capacity, with traffic up 56.9 percent year over year and capacity up 56.3 percent. Each remained down, though, from December 2019 levels by double-digit percentages. North America reported the strongest December recovery, with demand at 5.5 percent above December 2019 levels and capacity up 9.9 percent for the same period. Latin America was the only other region to show growth over pre-pandemic levels for each traffic and capacity, at 1.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
For full-year international comparisons, Asia-Pacific again led with the largest growth in traffic and capacity, with year-over-year increases of 126.1 percent and 101.8 percent, respectively. All other regions clocked double-digit percentage growth over 2022. Only the United States reported positive levels over 2019: 1.4 percent for demand and 0.7 percent for capacity.
Domestically, for December, China again showed triple-digit percentage growth over 2022 in both traffic and capacity. It also reported a demand increase of 8.4 percent compared with December 2019, with traffic up 13 percent for the same period. The United States and India were the only two other domestic regions to report increases above pre-pandemic levels for both demand and capacity for the month.
All domestic markets reported increases for demand and capacity in 2023 compared with 2022. Only Australia and Japan lagged pre-pandemic levels for traffic and capacity. Each were close, however, with Australian demand still down 4.2 percent versus 2019, and capacity shy by 3.9 percent. For Japan, traffic was short of 2019 levels by 3.2 percent, and was off 5.1 percent for capacity. China reported the largest growth rates versus 2019, at 7.1 percent for demand and 18.5 percent for capacity.
"To maximize the benefits of air travel in the post-pandemic world, governments need to take a strategic approach," Walsh said. "That means providing cost-efficient infrastructure to meet demand, incentivizing sustainable aviation fuel production to meet our net zero carbon emission goal by 2050, and adopting regulations that deliver a clear cost-benefit. … We saw a strong increase in the use of SAF in 2023, but SAF is still only 3 percent of all global renewable fuels production. A massive collective effort is needed to increase SAF output as a proportion of overall renewable fuel production as quickly as possible."
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