Capacity increased by 1.3%, and load factor edged up 0.2 percentage point to 72.6%. Middle Eastern airlines posted a 1.6% traffic increase in February, a slowdown from the 5.3% year-over-year growth reported in January largely owing to a slowdown on Middle East-Asia-Pacific routes. February capacity rose 0.7%, and load factor slipped 0.4 percentage point to 82.0%, which was the highest among regions. However, March data will reflect the impact of the spread of the virus across Europe and the related disruptions to travel. Demand in markets within Europe performed solidly despite some initial flight suspensions on the routes to/from Italy. The slowdown was driven by routes to/from Asia, where the growth rate slowed by 25 percentage points in February, versus January. Capacity fell 16.9% and load factor collapsed to 67.9%, a 13.2-percentage point drop compared to February 2019.Įuropean carriers’ February demand was virtually flat compared to a year ago (+0.2%), the region’s weakest performance in a decade. Capacity fell 5.0%, and load factor plunged 4.2 percentage points to 75.3%.Īsia-Pacific airlines’ February traffic plummeted 30.4% compared to the year-ago period, steeply reversing a 3.0% gain recorded in January. Europe and Middle East were the only regions to see a year-over-year traffic rise. febrUARY 2020 (% YEAR-ON-YEAR)ġ-% of Industry RPKs in 2019 2-Year-on-year chnage in load factor 3-Load factor level International Passenger Marketsįebruary international passenger demand fell 10.1% compared to February 2019, the worst outcome since the 2003 SARS outbreak and a reversal from the 2.6% traffic increase recorded in January. Without a doubt this is the biggest crisis that the industry has ever faced,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. The 14.1% global fall in demand is severe, but for carriers in Asia-Pacific the drop was 41%. And the impact on aviation has left airlines with little to do except cut costs and take emergency measures in an attempt to survive in these extraordinary circumstances. Borders were closed in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. “Airlines were hit by a sledgehammer called COVID-19 in February. February capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) fell 8.7% as airlines scrambled to trim capacity in line with plunging traffic, and load factor fell 4.8 percentage points to 75.9%. This was the steepest decline in traffic since 9.11 and reflected collapsing domestic travel in China and sharply falling international demand to/from and within the Asia-Pacific region, owing to the spreading COVID-19 virus and government-imposed travel restrictions. Geneva - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic data for February 2020 showing that demand (measured in total revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) fell 14.1% compared to February 2019. Le trafic de passagers s’effondre par suite des restrictions de voyage associées à la COVID‑19 (pdf)