March sees 3.3% increase in passenger demand; load factor slightly declines

“Passenger demand grew by 3.3% year-on-year in March, a slight strengthening from the 2.7% growth reported for February. A capacity expansion of 5.3%, however, outpaced the demand expansion leading to a load factor decline from record highs to 80.7% systemwide. There remains a lot of speculation around the potential impacts of tariffs and other economic headwinds on travel. While the small decline in demand in North America needs to be watched carefully, March numbers continued to show a global pattern of growth for air travel. That means the challenges associated with accommodating more people who need to travel—specifically alleviating supply chain problems and ensuring sufficient airport and air traffic management capacity—remain urgent,” stated Willie Walsh, the Director General of IATA.

Breaking it down by region, Asia-Pacific showed a strong performance with a 9.9% hike in demand and an 11.6% capacity increase, though the load factor dipped to 84.1%. Europe followed with a 4.9% rise in demand and a load factor of 78.2%. Middle Eastern airlines saw a 1.0% decline in demand, likely due to the timing of Ramadan, with a corresponding load factor of 74.6%. Meanwhile, North American carriers reported a marginal decline of 0.1% in demand, improving from February, while Latin American airlines posted a 7.7% rise in demand.

In domestic markets, variations were seen with Brazil and India showing significant growth at 8.9% and 11.0% respectively. In contrast, the US and Australia experienced declines in demand, with load factors of 80.3% and 81.8% respectively.

These statistics underscore the ongoing challenges in airline travel, including a need for increased capacity in response to rising demand and the impact of economic factors on travel patterns.