Provisional results for November 2003 show a sustained increase in industry traffic for a third consecutive month. Both passenger traffic and capacity indicate a positive year-on-year trend. The freight market has continued to hover at a 2% growth rate in the last four months. It is anticipated that the industry will close out the 2003 year at a slightly lower passenger level than seen in 2002. November 2003 saw scheduled passenger traffic grow by 5.9% year-on-year (in RPK terms) as compared to an increase of 2.5% in October.
Asia-Pacific carriers are recovering from the SARS outbreak having recorded positive figures for a second consecutive month. Both RPKs and ASKs are up, 3.9% and 1.7% respectively. The North American region has had its first upward climb in passenger traffic since January 2003 with reported RPKs 2.7% greater than for the same month last year. European airlines continued the encouraging growth trend started in July with November RPKs up 8.0%. The most impressive performance again came from Middle East carriers where RPKs grew 22.9%.
| November 2003 (% change over Nov 2002) | Year-to-date Results Jan through Nov 2003 | ||||||
Carriers | RPK | ASK | FTK | ATK | RPK | ASK | FTK | ATK |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
EUROPE | 8.0 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.7 |
N AMERICA | 2.7 | -4.4 | -4.1 | -0.6 | -8.0 | -7.7 | 5.4 | -2.5 |
S AMERICA | 10.9 | -0.9 | -0.1 | 0.2 | 9.7 | 1.8 | 5.4 | 3.8 |
ASIA PACIFIC | 3.9 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 4.4 | -10.4 | -3.0 | 5.0 | 2.4 |
MIDDLE EAST | 22.9 | 23.7 | 17.6 | 26.9 | 12.3 | 17.1 | 16.1 | 19.7 |
AFRICA | 3.9 | 5.0 | 10.8 | 11.4 | 0.2 | 3.3 | 10.2 | 5.9 |
OVERALL | 5.9 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 4.1 | -3.3 | -0.4 | 4.8 | 2.4 |
Notes for editors:
a. RPK: Revenue Passenger Kilometres measures actual passenger traffic
b. ASK: Available Seat Kilometres measures available passenger capacity
c. FTK: Freight Tonne Kilometres measures actual freight traffic
d. ATK: Available Tonne Kilometres measures available total capacity
2. IATA statistics cover international scheduled air traffic; domestic traffic is not included.
3. All figures are provisional and represent total reporting at time of publication plus estimates for missing data.
