(FILES) This file photo taken on January 24, 2016 shows a Virgin America plane near Los Angeles International Airport, California. Wall Street stocks opened modestly lower April 4, 2016 as Virgin America surged more than 40 percent on news it agreed to be acquired by Alaska Airlines in a $4 billion deal. Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17.771.20, down 21.55 points (0.12 percent). / AFP PHOTO / MARK RALSTON
KUALA LUMPUR: The global passenger traffic results for February showed a continuing strong demand growth for domestic and international travel, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on Thursday.
It said total revenue passenger kilometres rose 8.6% compared with the same month last year and monthly capacity increased by 9.6%.
Load factor declined 0.7 percentage point to 77.8%, it said.
“In the first two months of 2016, demand for passenger connectivity was off to its strongest start in eight years,” IATA director general and chief executive officer, Tony Tyler, said in a statement.
However, February was the first month since the middle of 2015 in which capacity growth exceeded demand, which caused the global load factor to decline.
“It is unclear whether this signals the start of a generalised downward trend in load factor, but it bears watching,” he opined.
February international passenger demand rose 9.1% compared with February 2015, which was an increase over the 7.3% yearly increase recorded in January with airlines in all regions recorded growth.
Total capacity climbed 9.9%, causing load factor to slip 0.6 percentage point to 76.6%, said IATA, which represents nearly 260 airlines comprising 83% of global air traffic.
Domestic travel demand rose 7.9% in February compared to February 2015, which was an increase over growth of 6.9% in January.
All markets, except Brazil, showed growth, with the strongest increases seen in India, US and China, while domestic capacity climbed 9% and load factor fell back 0.8 percentage point to 79.7%. - Bernama
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