A little less than three years after the first confinements, global air traffic has recovered. According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), it reached 68.5%, or more than two-thirds, of its levels before the Covid-19 crisis. Measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), one of the industry benchmarks, domestic traffic climbed 10.9% year-on-year.
Domestic connections have returned to 79.6% of their 2019 level. That is to say the last full year before the pandemic, which led to multiple travel restrictions around the world according to statistics published by the organization 300 airlines (83% of global traffic).
Domestic traffic is on track to return to its pre-crisis level in Latin America (-0.5% compared to 2019), Europe (-3.1%), and North America (-6.3 %) but lagged behind in Asia Pacific (-40.3%) due to prolonged travel restrictions, particularly within the large Chinese market.
The “zero Covid” policy, which continued in China until the beginning of December, had led Iata that month to revise downwards the estimate of passenger traffic for the year at the global level, to 70 .6% of the 2019 level, against 82.4% previously expected. It should return to 85.5% of the pre-crisis level in 2023, according to her.
International traffic doubled
International traffic, which had been the most affected, was multiplied by 2.5 in 2022 and reached 62.2% of its 2019 level. Here again, if most continents have recovered three quarters of their traffic pre-crisis international market, Asia-Pacific was still down 68.2% compared to 2019.
“The industry left 2022 in much better shape than it entered it, as most governments lifted Covid-19 travel restrictions during the year and people enjoyed the restoration of their freedom to travel,” according to Iata Director General Willie Walsh. “This momentum is likely to continue into the new year, despite some governments’ overreactions to China’s reopening,” he said.
Many countries have imposed Covid tests on travelers from China, where there was a major epidemic rebound after the end of restrictions, a practice deemed “impulsive” and “ineffective” by Iata.