Published on : Saturday, May 11, 2019
However, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, the underlying growth rate has been relatively steady since October 2018 at a 4.1% annualized pace. The capacity, which is available seat kilometers or ASKs for the month of March grew 4.2% and load factor dropped 0.9 percentage point to 81.7%.
Latin American airlines had the fastest traffic growth at 5.5%, compared to a year ago, up from 4.6% in February. Latin America was the only region to show an increase in the year-on-year growth rate for March compared to February.
On the other hand, Middle East carriers’ passenger demand fell 3.0% in March, marking a second consecutive month of declining traffic.
“While traffic growth slowed considerably in March, we do not see the month as a bellwether for the rest of 2019. Nevertheless, the economic backdrop has become somewhat less favorable, with the IMF having recently revised its GDP outlook downward for a fourth time in the past year,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.