Domestic travel drove global passenger traffic for November: IATA

The International Air Transport Association reported this week that global passenger traffic results for November 2014 continued to rise, with total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) up six per cent compared to November 2013.

November capacity expanded by 5.4 per cent, leading to a 0.5 percentage point rise in the load factor to 76.7 per cent, said IATA.

According to IATA, growth was driven primarily by domestic markets, with Chinese domestic travel (which rose 15.4 per cent over the previous November) as the main contributor to this growth. International travel, meanwhile, experienced a slight deceleration in growth towards the end of the year.

November 2014 international passenger demand was up 5.4 per cent compared to the year-ago period, which was below the 6.1 per cent year-to-date growth trend. Capacity rose 5.9 per cent and the load factor dipped 0.3 percentage points to 75.1 per cent. All regions except Africa recorded year-over-year increases in demand. However, compared to October, most regions reported slower demand growth for November.

IATA said that North American airlines saw demand rise two per cent over the 2013 period. This was an improvement over growth of 1.6 per cent in October. November capacity rose 3.1 per cent, causing load factor to fall 0.8 percentage points to 76.8 per cent.