Asian demand helps global air traffic soar to five-year high

Global air passenger traffic in 2015 hit its strongest level in five years, with soaring Asian demand driving a 6.5% rise on the previous year, well above the 5.5% 10-year average.

After adjusting for distortions caused by the rise of the US dollar, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) calculated that global airfares last year were approximately 5% lower than in 2014.

With annual capacity rising 5.6% in the year, load factor, a measure of how full airplanes were on each journey, climbed 0.6 percentage points to a record annual high of 80.3%.

All regions experienced positive traffic growth in 2015. Carriers in the Asia Pacific region accounted for one-third of the total annual increase in traffic.

"Last year’s very strong performance, against a weaker economic backdrop, confirms the strong demand for aviation connectivity. But even as the appetite for air travel increased, consumers benefitted from lower fares compared to 2014," said IATA’s director general Tony Tyler.

Helped by a 7.3% increase in direct connections, Asia Pacific airlines recorded a demand increase of 8.2% compared to 2014, the largest increase among the three main regions.

European carriers’ international traffic climbed 5.0% in 2015, aided by a pick-up in consumer spending in the Eurozone as well as a moderate increase in flight frequencies.

North American airlines saw demand rise by a steady 3.2% in 2015, broadly similar to growth in 2014. Middle East carriers had the strongest annual traffic growth at 10.5% to overtake North America in terms of market share with 14.2% to 13.4%.

African demand growth of 3.0% was significantly improved on the 0.9% annual growth achieved the year before.