Air passenger capacity is lagging demand, resulting in high load factors globally.

African airlines experienced the largest improvement in load factor in June, rising to 77%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points over June 2023, Iata revealed in its June 2024 Air Passenger Market Analysis report.

African airlines’ passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, saw a 16.9% y-o-y increase, while the global airline industry reported growth of 9.1%, with demand for international travel seeing an increase of 12.3% y-o-y.

However, global airlines’ total capacity, measured in available seat kilometres only rose by 8.5% y-o-y, while African airlines’ capacity growth remained low, with only 5.8% growth y-o-y.

“Demand grew across all regions as the peak northern summer travel season began in June. And with overall capacity growth lagging demand, we saw a very strong average load factor of 85%,” said Willie Walsh, IATA Director General.

“Operating with such high load factors is both good and challenging. It makes it even more important for all the stakeholders to operate with equal levels of efficiency to minimise delays and get travellers to their destinations on schedule.”