EUROPEAN AIRLINE TRAFFIC IN JANUARY
The Association of European Airlines has released traffic and capacity data for its members in January 2008.
Passenger-km grew just 2.8%, the lowest monthly growth rate excluding calendar effects (Easter and leap year) since September 2003. Cross-border traffic within Europe remained relatively buoyant at plus 5.7% but domestic traffic registered a drop of 2.4%.
The two largest longhaul regions both posted low growth rates, of 1.7% in the case of the North Atlantic and 0.9% for Far Eastern routes. The South Atlantic retained its place as AEA’s top-performing market at plus 10.0% but suffered a major slump in load factor, of 5.4 percentage points.
Load factors were in fact generally depressed, with minuses across all route groups. Overall, the occupancy rate was 71.6%, down by 1.1 points from the January 2007 level.
AEA warns that over the next three months, growth figures will be difficult to ‘read’, with an extra day in February and a very early Easter shifting traffic patterns from April to March. Preliminary indications for February, based on weekly reports, point to continuing low growth and load factor losses.