Big air travel demand in May

Geneva: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released global passenger traffic results for May showing a demand growth of 6.2% compared to May 2013. While this represented a deceleration compared to April year-over-year traffic growth of 7.6%, the performance is indicative of improving demand drivers.

May capacity rose 5.2% and load factor climbed 0.7 percentage points to 79.0%. All regions except Africa experienced positive traffic growth.

"We are seeing a healthy demand for air traffic to support and help sustain the pick-up in global economic activity," said IATA's Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

May international passenger traffic rose 7.0% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Capacity rose 6.0% and load factor climbed 0.8 percentage points to 78.1%.

All regions recorded year-on-year increases in demand. Asia Pacific carriers recorded an increase of 7.3% compared to May 2013, the largest increase among the three biggest regions. The strong performance suggests that downward pressure on demand from sluggishness in the Chinese economy is easing.

According to JP Morgan and Markit, the measure of manufacturing activity rebounded in May, supported by a strong rise in export order growth.

Capacity rose 7.5%, pushing down load factor 0.1 percentage points to 74.1%.

European carriers' international traffic climbed 6.1% in May compared to the year-ago period. Capacity rose 5.3% and load factor rose 0.6 percentage points to 80.3%. Economic activity in the Eurozone has been gaining momentum slowly and recent data suggest that solid increases in industrial production and trade should result in acceleration in Eurozone GDP in the second quarter.

North American airlines saw demand rise 4.4% in May compared to last year, implying positive underlying economic growth trends with easing pressure on employment levels.