Asia-Pacific operators are set to fully recover their international passenger traffic in the coming months, even as uncertainties – including the “potential erosion” of consumer sentiment – loom ahead.
Director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) Subhas Menon says this year “promises to be another good year” for the region’s carriers.
“International passenger traffic is poised to return to pre-pandemic levels in the coming months, buoyed by the return of tourism and resilient expansion of the region’s economies. However, there remain some uncertainties, including the potential erosion in business and consumer sentiment amid rising geopolitical risks,” says Menon.
His comments come as AAPA traffic data for 2023 show “robust growth” in demand: the region’s airlines carried about 279 million international passengers during the year, more than twice the number in 2022. The figure is also around 72% of pre-pandemic levels, the association states.
Full-year RPKs more than doubled, outpacing a two-fold increase in capacity, leading to an 8.7 percentage point increase in passenger load factor.
Menon notes that passenger demand grew “unabated” during year, adding: “The gradual restoration of flight frequencies and city-pair connections over the course of the year provided more options for travelers, further stimulating demand.”
As for air cargo, AAPA notes that cargo demand grew strongly in the last few months of the year, helped by an increase in e-commerce shipments. This in turn helped offset any further slump for the whole year.
Says Menon: “Whilst international air cargo demand declined by 2.8% for the full year, the last quarter of 2023 saw an 8.2% increase compared to the previous corresponding period.”
