Strong Growth in Air Travel Demand; CNS Partnership Conference to Focus on Maintaining Air Cargo Momentum

Welcome back! Globally, passenger traffic is now at 88% of March 2019 levels, WHO has declared that COVID is no longer a public health emergency of international concern, the air cargo decline continues to moderate, and more news and updates from another very busy week. Let's get to it.

Air Travel Growth Continues in March

Total traffic?in March 2023 (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose 52.4% compared to March 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 88.0% of March 2019 levels.

Domestic traffic?for March rose 34.1% compared to the year-ago period. Total March 2023 domestic traffic was at 98.9% of the March 2019 level.

"Ticket sales for both domestic and international travel give every indication that strong growth will continue into the peak Northern Hemisphere summer travel season." -Willie Walsh, DG IATA

International traffic?climbed 68.9% versus March 2022 with all markets recording healthy growth, led once again by carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. International RPKs reached 81.6% of March 2019 levels while the load factor at 81.3% exceeded the March 2019 level by 10.1 percentage points.

Read more on March passenger numbers:?

• Full Air Passenger Market Analysis: March 2023
• Air Travel Growth Continues in March (press release)

Career Opportunity of the Week: Assistant Director Industry Finance

The Assistant Director Industry Finance will report to the Head of Industry Analysis and will oversee work covering both airline financial performance and sustainable finance in support of airline members and all parts of IATA.

The role is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Click here to learn more about the the day-to-day, the team and other details.

Not quite right fit but looking for another opportunity? Click the button below to browse our open positions around the world.

Air Cargo Declines Moderate in March

New data for March 2023 global air cargo markets show a continued decline against the previous year’s demand performance. This trend began in March 2022.

Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), fell 7.7% compared to March 2022 (-8.1% for international operations). This was a slight improvement over the previous February’s performance (-9.4%) and half the rate of annual decline seen in January and December (-16.8% and -15.6% respectively).

At this point, it is unclear if this is a potentially modest start of an improvement trend or the upside of market volatility.

Irrespective of this, March performance slipped back into negative territory compared to pre-COVID levels (-8.1%).

Read more about March cargo numbers:?

• Air Cargo Market Analysis: March 2023
• Air Cargo Declines Moderate in March (press release)

Event of the Week: IATA Turbulence Aware User Forum

Join us in Calgary, Canada for the IATA Turbulence Aware User Forum hosted by WestJet. It's a great opportunity to network with airlines, data aggregators, OEMs, and other stakeholders.

The forum is a free of charge event.

Registration is now open .

News In Brief

? CNS Partnership Conference to Focus on Maintaining Air Cargo Momentum

? IATA Welcomes Telcos’ Agreement to Extend 5G Mitigations but More is Needed

? Statement On The End Of COVID As An International Public Health Emergency

Chart of the Week: Cargo Load Factors on Major Route Areas Outperform Industry Average

Cargo load factors on major route areas have outperformed the industry average recently. Of the top-four route areas that accounted for almost 70% of the industry total cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) in 2022, three have posted higher CLFs than the industry average since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more about the #WeeklyChart , air cargo demand and strategic capacity adjustments .

Jet Fuel Price Monitor (5 May)

Thanks for reading! Safe travels, and please consider sharing this newsletter.