São Paulo – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released a statement on Wednesday (10) indicating that the November 2023 air travel demand topped 99.1% of the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Pictured above, airport in Dubai.
According to the data, total traffic in November 2023 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 29.7% compared to November 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 99.1% of November 2019 levels. International traffic rose 26.4% versus November 2022, while domestic traffic was up 34.8%.
Asia-Pacific airlines had a 63.8% rise in November traffic compared to November 2022, which was the strongest year-over-year rate among the regions. European carriers’ November traffic climbed 14.8%, Middle Eastern airlines 18.6%, North American carriers 14.3%, Latin American airlines 20%, and African airlines 22.1%.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, was quoted as saying the aviation industry is ever closer to surpassing the 2019 peak year for air travel. “Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies. International travel remains 5.5% below pre-pandemic levels but that gap is rapidly closing. And domestic markets have been above their pre-pandemic levels continuously since April [2023],” said Walsh.
A highlight of resuming domestic flights, IATA pointed out, was the strong Thanksgiving holidays in the US, which reached a new high of 9.1% over November 2019. Growth was also particularly strong in China at 272% as it recovered from the COVID travel restrictions that were still in place a year ago.
Translation by Guilherme Miranda
