The widespread perception that both traditional and emerging tourism hotspots around the world have been overcrowded with tourists over the past year has just been confirmed. The tourism sector is experiencing an unprecedented surge, according to to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Between July 2023 and July 2024, global demand for air travel increased by 8 percent. Meanwhile, seating capacity also grew by 7.4%, contributing to these positive figures.
Additionally, flight occupancy rates averaged 86%, despite a massive international flight disruption on July 19, known as “the CrowdStrike IT outage.”
This incident is considered the largest IT failure in history, caused by a failed software update that affected millions of Windows systems, including numerous airport systems worldwide. The disruption caused the cancellation and delay of thousands of flights on all continents and billions in losses.
Surprisingly, this unfortunate situation has not prevented July from breaking several air passenger traffic records.
“Passenger demand [in July] reached an all-time high for the industry and in all regions except Africa, despite the significant disruption caused by the CrowdStrike IT outage,” said Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA.
Walsh also emphasized the need to keep air travel affordable for all travelers while accelerating the resolution of the supply chain problem, especially this time of year when travel shifts from leisure to business.
“People need and want to fly. And they do so in large numbers. Load factors are up the achievable maximum. But persistent supply chain bottlenecks have made deploying capacity to meet travel needs more challenging. There is an urgent call for manufacturers and suppliers to resolve their supply chain issues so that air travel remains accessible and affordable for all who depend on it.” he said.
The following chart shows air passenger market growth for July 2024, comparing year-on-year changes by region. As the data shows, the overall market grew by 8% in passenger kilometers (RPK) revenue.
“1) % of industry RPKs in 2023 2) Year-over-year change in occupancy rate 3) Load factor level.”
These results show that most markets are returning to “long-term growth trends following the post-pandemic recovery,” IATA says.
In short: airlines worldwide are experiencing strong growth Asia-Pacific airlines lead the way with a 19.1% increase in the annual question. Latin American airlines experienced a significant 13.4% boost despite disruptions caused by the powerful Category 5 Hurricane Beryl.
European airlines saw an increase of 8.3% over the past year, driven by the growing Europe-Asia market.
The African aviation sector also showed a growth of 7.4% in 2024. Middle Eastern airlines, in turn, saw an increase of 5.8%.
The worst performing region was North America with a modest increase of 4.9%. However, it saw the highest occupancy rate of 89.4%.
In terms of domestic passenger markets, these were the countries with the highest year-on-year domestic growth Brazil with an increase of 8.9%, China with a 7.1% and India with a turnover of 7.7% in passenger kilometers (RPK). The United States secured fourth position with a 5.0% increase in RPK.
