ASIA. Asian airlines carried 23.7 million international passengers in July, a +6.5% increase compared to the year-before period, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).
In revenue passenger kilometre terms, international passenger demand grew by +8.6%, exceeding the +6.2% expansion in available seat capacity “by a comfortable margin”, according to the association. The average international passenger load factor for the month rose 1.8 percentage points to +80.9%.
AAPA Director General Andrew Herdman commented: “Asian carriers have seen sustained growth in air travel demand on both regional and long haul routes. Overall, for the first seven months of the year, Asian carriers carried a combined total of 159.3 million international passengers, +9.0% more than the same period last year.”
Herdman said consumers were “enjoying the benefits of lower oil prices, including access to a wide range of affordable airfares, which are helping to drive the sustained growth in travel demand”.
He added that Asian airlines were focused on meeting the growth in demand, while achieving further cost savings and operational efficiencies “to deliver improved levels of profitability to support future investment”.
Herdman also cautioned that there were a number of risks to the global macroeconomic outlook, including the effects of slower growth in China, exaggerated currency movements and stock market volatility, that “could affect both business confidence and consumer demand going forward”.
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Asian carriers have seen sustained growth in air travel demand on both regional and long haul routes, according to AAPA’s figures |
