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News 2023


January 2023 IATA Air Passenger Market Analysis 
Published March 8. IATA Economic Reports.

Strong passenger demand


Highlights

  • The annual growth in industry-wide revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose to 67.0% in January, recovering global passenger demand to 84.2% of pre-pandemic levels. Domestic RPKs in the US climbed 0.8% above their 2019 levels.
  • Capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASKs), also increased by 35.5% year-on-year (YoY), placing passenger load factors at 77.7% for the month. Carriers in North America expanded ASKs to exceed their January 2019 capacity.
  • Helped by the swift reopening of China from Covid-19 restrictions, the annual growth of global domestic RPKs accelerated to 32.7% in January, reaching 97.4% of pre-pandemic levels. International passenger traffic also continued its steady growth to reach 77.0% of January 2019 levels.

African airlines' passenger traffic up 124.8% % YoY

Recovery in air travel demand continues to rise in early 2023 with African airlines achieving 124.8% YoY growth in international RPKs (traffic levels only 12.8% under those of January 2019). January capacity was up 82.5% and load factor climbed 13.9 percentage points to 73.7%, the lowest among regions. 


Global recovery accelerates as China reopens

The start of 2023 was marked by an acceleration in passenger demand recovery. Industry-wide RPKs grew by 67.0% YoY and stood at 84.2% of January 2019 levels. In seasonally adjusted terms, the global recovery trend gained further momentum as RPKs increased 7.4% month-on-month (MoM).  Download the full report.