IATA: Passenger demand grows during July

Data released by IATA shows that total passenger demand grew by 8% during the month of July, when compared to the same month of 2023. Similarly total capacity also saw an increase – up by 7.4% - when compared to July 2023. In addition to demand and capacity, July load factor saw an increase of 0.5 percentage points to 86%. Commenting on the month, Willie Walsh, IATA’s general director added: “July was another positive month. In fact, passenger demand hit an all-time high for the industry and in all regions except Africa, despite significant disruption caused by the CrowdStrike IT outage.” Walsh continued: “As much of the world returns from vacation, there is an urgent call for manufacturers and suppliers to resolve their supply chain issues so that air travel remains accessible and affordable to all those who rely on it.” International and domestic demand both saw a rise – in comparison to July 2023 – increasing by 10.1% and 4.8% respectively.  International capacity also rose during the month by 10.5%, while domestic capacity rose by 2.8%. Taking a look at a regional breakdown of international passenger markets - the Asia-Pacific region saw the highest demand growth in comparison to July 2023 – increasing by 19.1%. Capacity also grew 20.3% with load factor for the region at 83.8%, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points when compared to the same period of last year. Latin American carriers saw a 13.4% increase in demand in comparison to July 2023. Similarly, capacity climbed by 15.7% but like in the Asia-Pacific region load factors were down for the month – declining by 1.7 percentage points to 87.5% - when compared to July 2023.  “While hurricane Beryl had a strong localized impact in parts of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and southern United States, this did not significantly dampen demand region-wide,” said a spokesperson for IATA. Over in Europe, carriers saw an increase of 8.3% in passenger demand in comparison to the same month of 2023. Capacity increased by 8.1% in the region as well as load factors which rose by 0.2 percentage points to 87.5%, when compared to July of last year. African carriers also saw increases across the board compared to the same period last year - with demand rising by 7.4% - capacity climbing by 6.7% and the load factor rising by 0.5 percentage points to 74.3%. Similarly Middle Eastern carriers' demand during July rose by 5.8% in comparison to last year. Capacity saw an increase of 5.5% across the region with the load factor up by 0.3 percentage points to 84.1%. The region that saw the lowest increase in demand during the month was North America, with carriers seeing a demand increase of 5.3% in comparison to July of last year. Capacity saw an increase of 6.3% while the load factor was down in the region – decreasing by 0.8 percentage points - when compared to data from the same period of last year. “There was no significant negative demand impact from the CrowdStrike IT outage on July 19,” added a spokesperson for IATA.