IATA: Air Passenger Numbers Slumped in 2019

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced full-year global passenger traffic results for last year, showing that demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 4.2 percent compared to 2018.

The result is a slowdown when compared to the annual growth of 7.3 percent recorded in 2018.

It also marked the first year since the global financial crisis in 2009 with passenger demand below the long-term trend of around 5.5 percent annual growth.

Full-year 2019 capacity climbed 3.4 percent, and the load factor rose 0.7 percentage point to a record high of 82.6 percent. The previous high was 81.9 percent set in 2018.

December 2019 revenue passenger kilometres increased 4.5 percent against the same month in 2018.

That was an improvement over the 3.3 percent annual growth recorded in November, primarily due to solid demand in North America.

However, growth is expected to be sharply hit by the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent slowdown in Chinese aviation.