Air travel figures

IATA (International Air Transport Association) and OAG (Official Airline Guide) have both published traffic figures which tend to show we may have reached near the bottom as far air travel is concerned.  IATA statistics are for member airlines, which do not include some of the larger low cost carriers, and is for actual passengers flown.  Compared to August 2008, passenger demand was down 1.1%, (an improvement compared to the 2.9% decline in July), and freight demand fell by 9.6% (also an improvement compared to the 11.3% drop in July).  Compared to August 2008, passenger load factors improved by 1.2 percentage points to 80.9%.  Despite the tighter supply and demand conditions, average fares continue to be depressed and are down by 22% for premium.  OAG offers the actual seat availability for all airlines and these show a rise of 1.4% (4,130,744 more seats) over September 2008 levels.  David Beckerman, Vice-President OAG Market Intelligence, said: “As the summer season winds down, the steady upward trend we have seen since May is continuing.  After 11 straight months of capacity cutbacks, these figures indicate a growing confidence within the industry that demand for air travel is starting to pick up.” www.oagaviation.com www.oag.com www.iata.com

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