IATA sees slowing air traffic in 2007

IATA sees slowing air traffic in 2007

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts that air traffic will slow in 2007, despite the November result of passenger traffic showing satisfactory year-on-year growth of 6.7 per cent, the highest growth rate since May.

According to IATA's reports, passenger traffic is up 5.8 per cent on a year-to-date basis. Passenger load factor too remains strong at 76.1 per cent.

"While year-to-date traffic growth is slower than the buoyant rate seen in 2004-2005, it is in line with the long-term industry average growth rate and has been a key factor behind the industry's improving bottom line," said IATA director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani.

In the report, IATA said a positive revenue environment had helped the industry reduce losses to just US$0.5 billion (Bt17.9 billion) in 2006.

It suggested that airlines continue to keep load factor high by carefully managing capacity and by finding efficiency gains to achieve the US$2.5-billion industry profit that IATA is projecting for 2007.

The Middle East is still the fastest growing region, posting an increase of 18.3 per cent in passenger traffic in November. However, for the second consecutive month a rise of capacity of 20 per cent outstripped demand in that region.

Africa recorded a 7.5-per-cent increase, followed by North America with 7 per cent, Europe 6.1 per cent, Asia-Pacific 5.6 per cent and Latin America -2.4 per cent.

International freight traffic in the Middle East rose sharply by 17.3 per cent, followed by Africa with 3.9 per cent, Asia Pacific 3.2 per cent and Europe 1.4 per cent.

The last two regions posted relatively low growth rates despite improvement in underlying economic factors.

The Nation
Mon, January 15, 2007