As the summer holidays begin, airlines have recorded a major surge in air traffic demands and attendant recovery from the pandemic decline.

The airlines, under the aegis of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in their latest air transport data, showed that the total traffic in May 2022 was up by 83.1 per cent compared to May 2021 – largely driven by the strong recovery in international traffic. Global traffic is now at 68.7 per cent of pre-crisis levels.

African airlines had a 134.9 per cent rise in May versus a year ago. May 2022 capacity was up 78.5 per cent and load factor climbed 16.4 percentage points to 68.4 per cent, the lowest among regions.

International traffic rose 325.8 per cent 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 per cent of May 2019 levels.

IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh, noted that travel recovery had continued to gather momentum. “People need to travel. And when governments remove COVID-19 restrictions, they do. 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 per cent 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,” Walsh said.

European carriers’ May traffic rose 412.3 per cent versus May 2021. Capacity rose 221.3 per cent, and load factor climbed 30.1 percentage points to 80.6 per cent. The impact of the war in Ukraine remained limited to areas directly impacted.

Asia-Pacific airlines had a 453.3 per cent rise in May traffic compared to May 2021. This is significantly higher than the 295.3 per cent year-on-year gain registered in April 2022. Capacity rose 118.8 per cent and the load factor was up 43.6 percentage points to 72.1 per cent. Improvements in the region are being driven by reduced restrictions in most of the region’s markets, except China.

Middle Eastern airlines’ traffic rose 317.2 per cent in May compared to May 2021. May capacity rose 115.7 per cent versus the year-ago period, and load factor climbed 37.1 percentage points to 76.8 per cent. The progressive re-opening of Asian markets is boosting traffic through Gulf hubs.

Walsh added that the recovery in travel markets is no less than impressive. “As we accelerate towards the peak summer season in the Northern Hemisphere, strains in the system are appearing in some European and North American hubs. Nobody wants to see passengers suffering from delays or cancellations. But passengers can be confident that solutions are being urgently implemented.

“Airlines, airports and governments are working together, however, standing up the workforce needed to meet growing demand will take time and require patience in the few locations where the bottlenecks are the most severe.

“In the longer term, governments must improve their understanding of how aviation operates and work more closely with airports and airlines. Having created so much uncertainty with knee-jerk COVID-19 policy flip-flops and avoiding most opportunities to work in unison based on global standards, their actions did little to enable a smooth ramping-up of activity.

“And it is unacceptable that the industry is now facing a potential punitive regulatory deluge as several governments fill their post-COVID-19 regulatory calendars. Aviation has delivered its best when governments and industry work together to agree and implement global standards. That axiom is as true post-COVID-19 as it was in the century before.” Walsh said.