The ongoing post-pandemic recovery in commercial air travel is continuing, according to latest monthly data from industry group the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Its figures for July show a 26.2%, year-on-year, increase in global passenger numbers, bringing global traffic back up to 95.6% of pre-Covid levels for the corresponding month.
Globally, there was a 21.5% year-on-year rise in domestic passenger numbers in July, while international traffic grew by 29.6%.
“Planes were full during July as people continue to travel in ever greater numbers. Importantly, forward ticket sales indicate that traveller confidence remains high. And there is every reason to be optimistic about the continuing recovery,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
All geographic regions – Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific – saw strong annualised growth in the month.
Willie Walsh said: “The Northern Hemisphere summer is living up to expectations for very strong traffic demand. While the industry was largely prepared to accommodate a return to pre-pandemic levels of operations, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our infrastructure providers. Performance of some of the key air navigations services providers, for example, has been deeply disappointing for many reasons from insufficient staffing to the failure fiasco of NATS in the UK. These must be promptly corrected. Even more worrying, however, are political decisions by some governments—among them Mexico and the Netherlands—to impose capacity cuts at their major hubs that will most certainly destroy jobs and damage local and national economies. The numbers continue to tell us that people want and need air connectivity. That’s why governments should be working with us so that people can travel safely, sustainably and efficiently.”
