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News 2023


April 2023 IATA Air Passenger Market Analysis 
Published June 1. IATA Economic Reports.

Strong passenger demand continues


Highlights

  • Air passenger traffic growth persisted in April, with industry-wide revenue passenger-kilometers (RPKs) increasing 45.8% year-on-year (YoY), reaching 90.5% of pre-Covid levels.
  • Domestic traffic fully recovered for the first time since the pandemic began, surpassing the benchmark 2019 levels by 2.9%. This recovery was driven by growth in various markets, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.
  • The recovery in international traffic remained resilient, growing 48.0% YoY. With China’s international markets reopened, Asia Pacific carriers registered an annual growth of 192.7%. Across the industry, international traffic remained 16.4% below pre-pandemic levels in April.
  • North American carriers achieved full recovery in international passenger traffic, with RPKs standing 0.4% above April 2019 levels.

African airlines' passenger traffic rose 53.5% in April

African airlines’ traffic rose 53.5% in April 2023 versus a year ago, the second highest among the regions. April capacity was up 50.0% and load factor climbed 1.6 percentage points to 69.8%, the lowest among the regions.


April saw further global traffic recovery 

Industry-wide revenue passenger-kilometers (RPKs) increased 45.8% year-on-year (YoY) in April. While this growth rate was lower compared to the first quarter, it still indicated a positive trend. Adjusted for seasonality, RPKs rose by 0.9% in April over the previous month. The slowdown in month-on-month growth aligns with the lower annual growth rate, which can be attributed to the industry's progress towards reaching 2019 levels while building upon the higher base established in 2022. Download the full report.