Total air passenger traffic continued its strong, post-Covid-19 pandemic, recovery in July, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. (IATA is the global representative body for the airline sector.) Total air passenger traffic in July was up 26.2%, year-on-year (y-o-y), and reached 95.6% of its pre-pandemic level.

“Planes were full during July as people continue to travel in ever greater numbers,” highlighted IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “Importantly, forward ticket sales indicate that traveller confidence remains high. And there is every reason to be optimistic about the continuing recovery.”

International passenger traffic in July jumped 29.6% y-o-y; all IATA’s regions reported at least double-digit growth. International traffic reached 88.7% of its pre-Covid levels. However, the passenger load factor for the world’s airlines reached 85.7%, which was, IATA spotlighted, the highest such monthly figure ever recorded.

Domestic passenger traffic increased 21.5% y-o-y, in July. It was 8.3% higher than its levels before the pandemic. July’s domestic passenger demand figure was the highest ever reported. A major contributor to this was the very strong demand in China’s domestic market.

In terms of IATA’s regions, that which saw the greatest increase in total passenger traffic in July, y-o-y, was the Asia-Pacific, with 67.1%. Africa ranked second, with 25%, followed by the Middle East, with 21.9%. Then came Latin America (15.5%), North America (13.2%) and Europe (11.7%).

Regarding international passenger traffic, the leading region was again the Asia-Pacific, with a y-o-y jump of 105.8% in July. The region’s passenger capacity rose 96.2% and its load factor increased by 3.9 percentage points to 84.5%. Africa also retained its place in the ranking, at second, with its passenger traffic rising by 25.6% and its capacity by 27.4%. But its load factor actually fell by one percentage point, to 73.9%, which was the lowest for all the regions.

Third place was taken by Latin America, with a y-o-y increase in July of 25.3% (capacity rose 21.2% and load factor by 2.9 percentage points to 89.1%). Then came Middle Eastern carriers, with a rise of 22.6% in traffic, and 22.1% in capacity, while their load factor moved up slightly (by 0.1 percentage points) to 82.6%. Next was North America, where the traffic increased by 17.7% and capacity by 17.2%; the load factor rose 0.3 percentage points to 90.3%, the highest of all the regions (and for the second month in a row). Europe ranked last, but still in double digits, with traffic increasing 13.8% and capacity up by 13.6%, with the load factor improving by just 0.1 percentage points to 87%.

The domestic markets regularly tracked by IATA were Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan and the US. The country which saw the highest y-o-y increase in traffic in July was China, at 71.9%, followed by India (21.1%), Japan (13.4%), the US (11.1%), Brazil (3.6%) and Australia (3.5%).

“The northern hemisphere summer season is living up to expectations for very strong traffic demand,” affirmed Walsh.