The International Air Transport Association (IATA) confirmed that global demand for air Travel has reached an all-time high, with an increase of 8% between July 2023 and July 2024. This growth reflects the sustained recovery of the tourism industry after the pandemic, highlighting the popularity of traditional and emerging destinations.
The surge in demand was accompanied by a 7.4% increase in seat capacity, which helped maintain an average load factor of 86% on Flights. This level was achieved despite a major disruption on July 19, caused by the “CrowdStrike IT outage,” considered the largest systems failure in history.
Despite this incident, which affected millions of systems at airports around the world and led to the cancellation of thousands of Flights, July broke several records in passenger air transport. Willie WalshIATA Director General, highlighted that all regions except Africa recorded growth in demand during that month.
Walsh stressed the importance of keeping air Travel affordable and accessible, calling on manufacturers and suppliers to address supply chain bottlenecks. This challenge is especially relevant as we transition from the leisure to business Travel season.
Asia-Pacific led regional growth with a 19.1% increase in year-on-year demand. Latin America also showed a notable performance, with a 13.4% increase, despite the disruptions caused by Hurricane Beryl. Europe recorded an 8.3% increase, driven by market expansion between Europe and Asia.
North America, on the other hand, had the lowest increase in demand, at 4.9%, but stood out for having the highest occupancy rate in the world, at 89.4%. Africa and the Middle East also showed positive growth of 7.4% and 5.8%, respectively.
In domestic markets, Brazil, China and India led growth in Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), with increases of 8.9%, 7.1% and 7.7%, respectively. The United States, although in fourth place, also showed significant improvement with 5.0% growth in RPK.
This summary reflects the growth trends and challenges facing the airline industry in 2024, highlighting the importance of improving responsiveness to the growing demand for air Travel worldwide.
