Air passenger capacity is lagging demand, resulting in high load factors globally.
African airlines experienced the largest improvement in load factor in June, rising to 77%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points over June 2023, Iata revealed in its June 2024 Air Passenger Market Analysis report.
African airlines passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, saw a 16.9% y-o-y increase, while the global airline industry reported growth of 9.1%, with demand for international travel seeing an increase of 12.3% y-o-y.
However, global airlines total capacity, measured in available seat kilometres only rose by 8.5% y-o-y, while African airlines capacity growth remained low, with only 5.8% growth y-o-y.
Demand grew across all regions as the peak northern summer travel season began in June. And with overall capacity growth lagging demand, we saw a very strong average load factor of 85%, said Willie Walsh , IATA Director General.
