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Global air traffic results announced by industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA) for January 2016 show India leading the world in air passenger demand.
Domestic Passenger Markets:
Compared to the previous year, India’s domestic air traffic demand shown by revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose by 22.9% in January. The growth is the highest in the world by a wide margin. Having surpassed Australia and Japan last year, India is rapidly closing in on Russia at around 1.2% of global revenue passenger kilometers.
| January 2016 (% year-on-year) |
World share¹ | RPK | ASK | PLF (%-pt)² |
PLF (level)³ |
| Domestic | 36.4% | 6.8% | 5.1% | 1.3% | 78.9% |
| Australia | 1.1% | 3.8% | 2.3% | 1.1% | 76.9% |
| Brazil | 1.4% | -4.1% | -2.6% | -1.3% | 83.3% |
| China P.R | 8.4% | 11.9% | 10.6% | 0.9% | 79.1% |
| India | 1.2% | 22.9% | 21.9% | 0.7% | 84.7% |
| Japan | 1.2% | 1.2% | -4.3% | 3.5% | 64.7% |
| Russia Fed. | 1.3% | -2.0% | -5.2% | 2.2% | 68.4% |
| US | 15.4% | 5.5% | 3.7% | 1.4% | 81.0% |
¹% of industry RPKs in 2015 ²Year-on-year change in load factor ³Load factor level
Despite the shutting down of Transaero, Russian drop in domestic traffic is only 2.0% as the traffic has been absorbed by other airlines. The IATA, a long-time partner of Russian aviation has proposed a series of methods to improve traffic in the coming months of the year.
International passenger markets
In January, an increase of 7.3% was seen in international traffic (RPKs), capacity measured by available seat kilometers (ASKs) rose by 5.9%. Passenger load factor (PLF) showing load capacity improved by one per cent with percentage point moving up to 78.8%.
| January 2016 (% year-on-year) |
World share¹ | RPK | ASK | PLF (%-pt)² |
PLF (level)³ |
| International | 63.6% | 7.3% | 5.9% | 1.0% | 78.8% |
| Africa | 1.9% | 12.1% | 8.2% | 2.5% | 71.3% |
| Asia Pacific | 17.4% | 10.3% | 7.6% | 2.0% | 79.2% |
| Europe | 23.8% | 4.2% | 2.6% | 1.2% | 78.8% |
| Latin America | 2.9% | 8.9% | 7.8% | 0.8% | 82.5% |
| Middle East | 9.1% | 10.9% | 12.9% | -1.4% | 77.8% |
| North America | 8.5% | 2.4% | 1.3% | 0.8% | 80.3% |
¹% of industry RPKs in 2015 ²Year-on-year change in load factor ³Load factor level
In the Asia Pacific region, a 7.3% increase in the number of direct airport connections over the past year has led to traffic increase. Airline strikes and the shutting down of Russia’s Transaero have resulted in fall in traffic, but are steadily improving. However, North America has shown the weakest demand as the region focused more on domestic than international market. Strongest year-over-year demand growth in January was shown by the Middle East, facilitated by ongoing network and fleet expansion. Latin America showed highest percentage points overall but the domestic region remains affected due to economical difficulties in countries as Brazil.
