Growth within the Asia region is solid while traffic on the Asia-Europe route has continued to recover strongly from terrorism-related disruption in early-2016. Demand has risen at an annualised rate of 22% since November.
The ban on large electronics in the cabin on certain routes to the U.S. and the UK has not yet affected global passenger traffic demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) for March, which rose 6.8% compared to the same month a year ago, according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA).
“Strong traffic demand continued throughout the first quarter, supported by a combination of lower fares and a broad-based upturn in global economic conditions. The price of air travel has fallen by around 10% in real terms over the past year and that has contributed to record load factors,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
Juniac added that it would take at least another month to see the full impact of the electronics ban, which came into effect on March 25.
Asia-Pacific airlines’ traffic jumped 9.1% in March, compared to the year-ago period. Capacity increased 7.4%, and load factor rose 1.2 percentage points to 78.7%.
Growth within the Asia region is solid while traffic on the Asia-Europe route has continued to recover strongly from terrorism-related disruption in early-2016. Demand has risen at an annualised rate of 22% since November.