KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 7\u00a0(NNN-Bernama) — Air travel and demand for global air cargo markets improved in February 2022,\u00a0according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement today, IATA said Omicron-related impacts moderated outside of Asia while the war in Ukraine, which began on Feb 24, did not have a major impact on traffic levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said total traffic in February 2022, which was measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), was up 115.9 per cent compared to February 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is an improvement from January 2022, which was up 83.1 per cent compared to January 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCompared to February 2019, however, traffic was down 45.5 per cent,\u201d IATA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that domestic traffic in February 2022 was up 60.7 per cent from February 2021, building on a 42.6 per cent increase in January 2022 compared to January 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Domestic traffic in February was 21.8 per cent below the volumes of February 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, international RPKs rose 256.8 per cent versus February 2021, improving from a 165.5 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in January 2022 versus the year-earlier period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said all regions improved their performance compared to the prior month despite February 2022 international RPKs slipping by 59.6 per cent compared to the same month in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe recovery in air travel is gathering steam as governments in many parts of the world lift travel restrictions,\u201d said IATA director general Willie Walsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, IATA said the demand for global air cargo markets increased in February 2022 despite a challenging operating backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the demand side, it said, manufacturing activity ramped up quickly after the early February Lunar New Year holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCapacity was positively influenced by the general and progressive relaxation of COVID-19 travel restrictions, reduced flight cancellations due to Omicron-related factors (outside of Asia), and fewer winter weather operational disruptions,\u201d said IATA in a separate statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Global demand, which is measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs), was up 2.9 per cent compared to February 2021 (2.5 per cent for international operations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While cargo volumes continued to rise, the growth rate decelerated from the 8.7 per cent y-o-y expansion in December, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capacity was 12.5 per cent above February 2021 (8.9 per cent for international operations).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While this is in positive territory compared to pre-COVID-19 levels, capacity remains constrained by recording 5.6 per cent below February 2019 levels, said IATA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also said the impact of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine had a limited effect globally on February\u2019s performance as it occurred near the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IATA expects the negative impacts of war and related sanctions (particularly higher energy costs and reduced trade) will become more visible from March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walsh said the demand for air cargo continued to expand despite growing challenges in the trading environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is not likely to be the case in March as the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine take hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSanction-related shifts in manufacturing and economic activity, rising oil prices and geopolitical uncertainty are expected to take their toll on air cargo\u2019s performance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 7\u00a0(NNN-Bernama) — Air travel and demand for global air cargo markets improved in February 2022,\u00a0according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). In a statement today, IATA said Omicron-related impacts moderated outside of Asia while the war in Ukraine, which began on Feb 24, did not have a major impact on traffic levels. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":170236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,288,286],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170936"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170971,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170936\/revisions\/170971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/170236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}