Leisure and business travel have both experienced a strong revival following the lifting of travel restrictions, AAPA said. Air cargo demand softened, however, due to continued weakness in global manufacturing and business confidence, and as costs remained high. The average international freight load factor slid 9.3 percentage points from a year earlier to 63.9% in November.
Airlines in the Asia Pacific region flew 13.4 million passengers internationally in November, compared with just 1.8 million in the same month a year earlier, according to preliminary data from their trade association.
Revenue passenger kilometres, which measure demand, surged nearly 500%, far ahead of the 187% growth in seat capacity. That resulted in a 40 percentage point jump in load factor — or how many seats are filled in a plane — to 77.4%, close to pre-pandemic levels, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said in a statement Thursday.
