Iata’s passenger data for July shows that the recovery in air travel continues strongly. “And that is even with capacity constraints in parts of the world that were unprepared for the speed at which people returned to travel,” said Willie Walsh, Iata DG.

African airlines saw an 84.8% rise in July RPKs versus a year ago. July 2022 capacity was up 46.7% and load factors climbed 15.5 percentage points to 75.0%, still, however, the lowest among regions.

Total air traffic in July 2022 (measured in RPKs) was up 58.8% compared with July 2021. Globally, traffic is now at 74.6% of pre-crisis levels.

Domestic traffic for July 2022 was up 4.1% compared with the same period a year ago and is now driving the recovery. Total July 2022 domestic traffic was at 86.9% of the July 2019 level.

International traffic rose 150.6% versus July 2021. July 2022 international RPKs reached 67.9% of July 2019 levels. All markets reported strong growth, led by Asia-Pacific.

“There is still more ground to recover, but this is an excellent sign,” said Walsh. “Aviation continues to recover as people take advantage of their restored freedom to travel. The pandemic showed that aviation is not a luxury but a necessity in our globalised and interconnected world.”