Asia Pacific air travel grew in August, new figures reveal
The number of international passengers carried reached 11.6 million for the month, a year on year increase of 4.1 percent, according to the preliminary figures released Thursday by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines today released preliminary traffic results for the month of August 2005.
“For the first eight months of the year the number of international passengers recorded growth of 6.5 percent over the same period last year, but growth may now be slowing as a result of the effects of high oil prices on the global economy,” Andrew Herdman, AAPA’s director general, said in a statement.
That view seems to be given added weight by the fact that air cargo growth so far this year has been relatively weak, at 3.5 percent, and weaker still in August, Herdman added.
The new data from the airline association revealed that traffic in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) terms grew by 5.2 percent on a capacity increase of 3.9 percent. Passenger load factor rose 1.0 percentage point to 76.3 percent.
International freight traffic also increased (1.3 percent, expressed in freight ton kilometers or FTK). “Capacity, however, was up 3.3 percent,
The AAPA is a grouping of 17 scheduled international airlines based in the Asia-Pacific region, including Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, Dragonair, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International and Vietnam Airlines.
HONG KONG (eTurboNews)
September 30, 2005
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