KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Passenger traffic for September 2022 rose 57 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) showing that the recovery in air travel continues to be strong, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
According to IATA, globally traffic is now at 73.8 per cent of September 2019 levels.
“Even with economic and geopolitical uncertainties, the demand for air transport continues to recover ground.
“The outlier is still China with its pursuit of a zero COVID strategy keeping borders largely closed and creating a demand roller coaster ride for its domestic market, with September being down 46.4 per cent on the previous year.
“That is in sharp contrast to the rest of Asia Pacific, which, despite China’s dismal performance, posted a 464.8 per cent increase for international traffic compared to the year-ago period,” IATA director-general Willie Walsh said in a statement.
IATA said domestic traffic for September 2022 was up 6.9 per cent compared to the year-ago period while international traffic climbed 122.2 per cent versus September 2021. All markets reported strong growth, led by Asia Pacific.
Meanwhile, global air cargo markets showed that demand had softened after falling 10.6 per cent y-o-y compared to September 2021, but continued to track at near pre-pandemic levels (-3.6 per cent).
Walsh said while air cargo’s activity continued to track near to 2019 levels, volumes remained below 2021’s exceptional performance as the industry faced some headwinds.
“At the consumer level, with travel restrictions lifting post-pandemic, people are likely to spend more on vacation travel and less on e-commerce.
“And at the macro-level, increasing recession warnings are likely to have a negative impact on the global flows of goods and services, balanced slightly by a stabilisation of oil prices,” he said.
— Bernama
