IATA: Global Air Travel at 99% of pre-Covid 2019 Levels

Air travel is fast approaching full recovery reaching 99.1 percent of pre-pandemic 2019 levels in November on the back of a strong October, according to the latest report released by the  International Air Transport Association (IATA).

More specifically, total global traffic in November 2023 was up by 29.7 percent compared to November 2022.

International traffic increased by 26.4 percent in November over the same month in 2022 with the Asia-Pacific region reporting the strongest year-over-year results (+63.8 percent) and all regions showing improvement. However, international traffic is still 5.5 percent below pre-Covid levels.

Domestic traffic for the same month increased by 34.8 percent over November 2022 and by 6.7 percent over November 2019 levels.

“We are moving ever closer to surpassing the 2019 peak year for air travel. Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies. International travel remains 5.5 percent below pre-pandemic levels but that gap is rapidly closing. And domestic markets have been above their pre-pandemic levels continuously since April,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh.

In Europe, airlines reported a 14.8 percent increase in November traffic over the same month in 2022 with capacity up by 15.2 percent but load factor down by 0.3 percentage points to 83.3 percent.

Airlines in North America saw traffic rise by 14.3 percent in November over the 2022 period with capacity up by 16.3 percent but load factor down by 1.4 percentage points to 80.0 percent.

Photo © European Union – EP / Dominique-Hommel FRANCE

“Aviation’s rapid recovery from Covid demonstrates just how important flying is to people and to businesses,” said Walsh, adding that IATA looks to 2024 as “the year when governments follow-up on their own declarations and finally deliver comprehensive policy measures to incentivize the rapid scaling-up of SAF production”.