Air transport is valued at 35 per cent of world trade with more than half of the world’s tourists travelling across international borders using air transport and over 90 per cent of cross border Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce carried by air.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the total number of airline passengers grew by 6 per cent from 2015 to reach 3.7 billion in 2016 and departure numbers increased to 35 million globally.
This together with traffic growth and airline profitability were the highlights of air transport last year.
Low-cost carrier (LCC) passenger numbers crossed the milestone of 1 billion passengers in 2016 and accounted for approximately 28 per cent of the world total scheduled passengers in 2016.
The increasing presence of LCCs in emerging economies contributed to the overall growth of passenger traffic.
Fuel accounted for nearly a fifth of the industry’s operating costs in 2016, while it accounted for a third in 2015, the significant decrease in fuel costs helping airlines to maintain their operating profit while offering lower fares.
World passenger traffic, in terms of total scheduled revenue passenger-kilometres (RPKs), rose by 6.3 per cent with more than seven billion RPKs performed, a slowdown from the 7.1 per cent achieved in 2015.
International scheduled passenger traffic expressed in terms of RPKs grew by 6.3 per cent in 2016, down from the 7.0 per cent recorded in 2015 with most regions posting slower growth. However, Africa recorded an improvement with a 3 per cent share from 2.3 per cent growth registered in 2015 to 5.7 per cent in 2016.
Overall domestic scheduled air services markets grew by 6.2 per cent in 2016, down from the 7.3 per cent growth recorded in 2015.
The World Bank projects the improved economic conditions, traffic growth and air carrier profitability momentum continuing into 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment