Airline Post » airline traffic

Global Airline Traffic Demands

Abbey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:44:51 +0000

On Tuesday the International Air Transportation Association said that the situation concerning passenger traffic did not change, i.e. it had the same low levels that were last year. One should say that overall passenger demand went up by 0.3 per cent but at the same time cargo demand dropped by 5.4 per cent.

According to IATA the vivid growth was considered to be dissembling as it was compared with a very poor period in 2008, at that time passenger traffic decreased by 2.9 per cent as well as cargo dropped by 7.7 per cent.

It was estimated by statistics that from August there was a drop of 0.3 per cent in passenger volumes. As established, this resulted in a pause in the economic recovery not only in the United States but also in other countries.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA general director, said that it was too early to identify the slight improvement as a recovery. He also added that yields were still not in a good position and costs increased.

Non-fuel costs as well as oil prices are going up. At the beginning of the year oil prices were US$43 per barrel, now they are considered to be $75 per barrel.

But still one can see some improvements in passenger demand, it is five per cent better in comparison with the low point that was in March 2009 but at the same time it is six per cent below the peak in early 2008. The situation concerning demand in North American remained the same from August, i.e. 2.4 per cent decrease from a year earlier.

As for Europe, demand dropped by 4.2 per cent in September while in August it was 2.8 per cent. Partially it was caused by the loss of short-haul market share to low-cost carriers.

But serious improvements were shown by Asia-Pacific carriers. Demand raised by2.1 per cent in September despite the fact that there was 1.6 per fall in August.

As far as Middle Eastern demand is concerned, it increased by 18.2 during the year but because of Ramadan that was in August this year, the number was falsified.

Airline Industry Will Not Recover by 2010

Abbey — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:00:22 +0000

According a report from the Boyd Group, a Colorado-based consultant, it is expected that the number of airline passengers will decrease next year which may negatively influence the travel industry. But it is still hoped that the situation will get worse.


The Boyd Group considers that the declining number of passengers will be stretched up to the year of 2010. It is estimated that only 675 million passengers will depart on flights from U.S. airports next year which will be a drop of 74 million in comparison with the first half of 2009.
According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 346 million passengers were carried by U.S. airlines during this year's first six months, which is a 9% decline as compared with the same period of the last year.
Michael Boyd CEO of the Boyd Group says that economy continues getting worse, the number of people that remain without their jobs is increasing. The Boyd Group forecasts that the number of passengers will recover by the year of 2011, but, nevertheless, the airlines will experience the shortage of customers, making up to 16 millions of passengers if compared to 2008.
Boyd informed that these analyses estimates are grounded on the two main components like an economical and demographic characteristic of every airport and the number of seats with strategic policies.
There are also predictions of the consulting firm that regional jets in the number of 622 will be removed from their routes as they do not represent any economic value for the high volumes of fuel burned. You can now imagine that the number of such jets flying in North America make up to 1,500, taking into account those that have a seating capacity of 50 passengers.
The consulting firm also predicts that airlines will retire 622 regional jets by 2014 because they burn too much fuel and are not economical to operate on the routes they now serve. About 1,500 such jets, including many that seat about 50 passengers, are now flying in North America.
Boyd also added that they can make profits by serving fewer destinations and there observed an oversupply of such jets.



Passenger numbers still dropping for European airlines
Dave — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:59:53 +0000
According to a recent statement from Association of European Airlines (AEA) issued on Friday, European carriers faced another drop in traffic for September. The company estimated a 3% drop for last month, a figure which is worse than that of August.

In the statement issued, AEA told reuters:
“August produced another negative figure in the  relentless series of traffic decreases which stretches back to November 2008. The latest result was minus 1.8 percent in  passenger kilometres and minus 3.5 percent in passenger boardings. The preliminary outlook for September is for a figure worse than in August, at about minus 3 percent (in passenger-kilometres).”
The forecast is that European airlines face a “paradigm shift with far-reaching and irrevocable consequences.” The combined loss for the entire 2009 is set to be as much as US$4.3 billion. It is also said that 34,000 European airline jobs will be lost by the end of 2009. 
Among the measure recommended by the association to reduce charges that might reflect in airline tickets is increasing access to credit to fund fleet renewal programs. Will we have to pay more for flying with our favorite airline? If the trend continue, we just might have to.