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Asia-Pacific reports largest regional drop in international RPKs in September
November 6th 2020
Asia-Pacific carriers suffered the largest fall in demand for international air travel in September as travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 suppressed demand, figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed. Read More »
The region's airlines posted a 95.8% drop in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) in September, compared with the same month a year earlier.
It was the largest decline of the six regions in the IATA report, trailing Latin America (-92.2%), North America (-91.3%), Middle East (-90.2%), Africa (-88.5%) and Europe (-82.5%).
"Flight restrictions have been stringent in the region and improvements since the start of the crisis have been restrained," IATA's air passenger market analysis report published this week said.
IATA's monthly cargo report said Asia-Pacific carriers experienced a 15.9% fall-off in demand, or cargo tonne kilometres (CTK). Capacity, measured by available cargo tonne kilometres (ACTK), were down 29.5%. The cargo load factor improved 10.4 percentage points to 64.2%. IATA said international capacity remained constrained in the region, despite airlines adding capacity on many routes.
While international air travel remained highly depressed, there were encouraging numbers from some domestic Asia-Pacific markets.
The IATA report said domestic RPKs in China were down 2.8% in September, compared with a year ago. Measure of demand was up 16 percentage points from August.
Passenger capacity was 2.3% higher year-on-year, while passenger load factor on Chinese domestic flights in September was 79.4%, down 4.2 percentage points from the same months in 2019.
"[China’s] pace of recovery accelerated recently, with signs consumer spending and the overall economy are almost back to normal," the IATA report said of its domestic market.
The IATA report said the Japanese domestic market recorded a 59.3% fall in RPKs and capacity was off 45.6% in September.
For the month, Australia had the sharpest decline in demand and capacity of the six domestic markets covered in the IATA report, with RPKs 88.7% lower and ASKs 82.8% weaker in the month. Passenger load factor was 54.1%, a 28.3 percentage point reduction from the prior corresponding period.
"Domestic volumes of airlines in Australia have remained soft since the start of the crisis," IATA said.
"Containment measures have been particularly strict, with travel between states being limited."
IATA director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said the recent resurgence in COVID-19 outbreaks in various parts of the world, including Europe and the U.S. and governments' reliance on the blunt instrument of quarantine, had "halted momentum towards re-opening borders to travel". “A broader economic recovery is only possible through the connectivity provided by aviation," de Juniac said in a statement.
