IATA says international travel drives May air traffic recovery

July 11, 2022 iGaming & Gambling

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced passenger data for May 2022 showing that the recovery in air travel accelerated heading into the busy Northern Hemisphere summer travel season.

Total traffic in May 2022 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) was up 83.1 percent compared to May 2021, largely driven by the strong recovery in international traffic. Global traffic is now at 68.7 percent of pre-crisis levels. Domestic traffic for May 2022 was up 0.2 percent compared to the year-ago period. Significant improvements in many markets were masked by a 73.2 percent year-on-year decline in the Chinese domestic market due to COVID-19 related restrictions. May 2022 domestic traffic was 76.7 percent of May 2019. International traffic rose 325.8 percent versus May 2021. The easing of travel restrictions in most parts of Asia is accelerating the recovery of international travel. May 2022 international RPKs reached 64.1 percent of May 2019 levels.

“The travel recovery continues to gather momentum. People need to travel. And when governments remove COVID-19 restrictions, they do,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general. Many major international route areas – including within Europe, and the Middle East-North America routes – are already exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels. Completely removing all COVID-19 restrictions is the way forward, with Australia being the latest to do so this week. The major exception to the optimism of this rebound in travel is China, which saw a dramatic 73.2 percent fall in domestic travel compared to the previous year. Its continuing zero-COVID policy is out-of-step with the rest of the world and it shows in the dramatically slower recovery of China-related travel.”