Airline passenger traffic figures for March are a further indication of the slowing growth rate of air travel demand, warns the International Air Transport Association.
The figures show passenger traffic was up 5.8% on the same month last year, but the March results were skewed by this year's early Easter and demand grew only 4% in the month when adjusted for this distortion, says IATA.
The March figures follow similar signs of a slowing in passenger traffic growth in January and February.
IATA director general and chief executive Giovanni Bisignani says the slowing traffic figures have been compounded by rocketing fuel costs. "Astronomical oil prices are hitting hard," he says. "And the buffer of an expanding economy has disappeared. The fortunes of the industry have taken a major turn for the worse."
In its most recent forecast for the year, made at the start of April, IATA further downwardly revised its profit expectations for the industry and now expects the airline sector to post a global profit of $4.5 billion for 2008.
The March figures showed a slowdown in Asia-Pacific carrier growth to 4.3%, which IATA says is significant given expections that the region's booming economies would immunise its carriers from the US slowdown. Even strong Middle East carrier traffic growth - more than 15% higher in March - is a fall on the 20% growth enjoyed in 2007.
The overall passenger load factor for March, adjusted for the Easter distortion, was nearly two points down on the same stage last year at 76.1%. "This fall indicated that the slowing of demand occurred faster than airlines could cut capacity," says IATA.
Freight traffic growth remained sluggish in March at 3.2%.
Amid increasingly tough market conditions, a number of carriers have recently been forced to suspend operations, including South Africa's Nationwide Airline, transatlantic premium operator Eos and Hong Kong operator Oasis.
Source: Flight International
