Asia Pacific airlines : 23.2 million international passengers in June
Travel Biz News —-
Asia Pacific airlines carried 23.2 million international passengers in the month of June, representing a 159.3% year-on-year increase compared to the same month last year.
The region’s airlines carried 21.4 million international passengers in May this year.
Preliminary June 2023 traffic figures released by Kuala Lumpur based Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed that the recovery in international passenger markets remains robust, as travel demand continued to grow despite inflationary pressures and the weakness in regional currencies.
Overall passenger traffic averaged 72.5% of 2019 levels for the month, with demand climbing alongside the expansion in flight frequencies and route networks.
Meanwhile, global trade activity was muted with the ongoing declines in new export orders. The easing in container shipping rates relative to air freight rates further discouraged demand for air shipments.
Against this background, air cargo demand, as measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK), declined by 8.1% year-on-year in June.
“In the first half of the year, the number of international passengers carried by Asian airlines quadrupled to a combined total of 120 million, boosted by the upsurge in leisure and business travel demand, as the region’s economies emerge strongly from the pandemic,” said Subhas Menon, Director General of APPA.
“During the same period, the region’s carriers posted a 10% decline in air cargo demand. A myriad of factors, including a post-pandemic shift in spending from goods to services and higher merchandise prices, weighed on global air cargo markets, ” he added .
July 2023
