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By Chinelo Obogo
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has disclosed that in March 2022, capacity for African airlines was up by 49.9 per cent and load factor climbed 14.1 percentage points to 64.5 per cent The international body also said African airlines had a 91.8 per cent rise in March, Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK) versus a year ago, improved compared to the 70.8 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in February 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. Air travel demand is challenged by low vaccination rates on the continent as well as impacts from rising inflation.
This data demonstrates that the recovery of air travel continues, though impacts from the conflict in Ukraine on air travel demand were quite limited overall. Total traffic in March 2022 worldwide was up 76 per cent compared to March 2021. Although that was lower than the 115.9per cent rise in February year-over-year demand, volumes in M arch were the closest to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, at 41 per cent below.
March 2022 domestic traffic was up 11.7 per cent compared to the year-ago period, far below the 59.4 per cent year-over-year improvement recorded in February. This largely was a result of the Omicron-related lockdowns in China. March domestic RPKs were down 23.2% versus March 2019.
International RPKs rose 285.3 per cent versus March 2021, exceeding the 259.2per cent gain experienced in February versus the year-earlier period. Most regions boosted their performance compared to the prior month, led by carriers in Europe. March 2022 international RPKs were down 51.9per cent compared to the same month in 2019.
