Iata recently released data for November 2023’s air travel performance, indicating that demand topped 99% of 2019 levels.

Total traffic in November (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 29.7% compared with November 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 99.1% of November 2019 levels.

International traffic rose 26.4% versus November 2022. The Asia-Pacific region continued to report the strongest year-over-year results (up 63.8%) with all regions showing improvement compared with the previous year. November 2023 international RPKs reached 94.5% of November 2019 levels. 

Domestic traffic for November was up 34.8% compared with November 2022. Total November domestic traffic was 6.7% above the November 2019 level. Growth was particularly strong in China (up 272%) as it recovered from the COVID travel restrictions that were still in place a year ago. US domestic travel, benefiting from strong Thanksgiving holidays demand, reached a new high, expanding by 9.1% over November 2019.

African airlines had a 22.1% rise in November RPKs versus a year ago. November capacity was up 29.6% and load factors fell 4.3 percentage points to 69.7%, the lowest amongst regions.

“We are moving ever closer to surpassing the 2019 peak year for air travel. Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies. International travel remains 5.5% below pre-pandemic levels but that gap is rapidly closing. And domestic markets have been above their pre-pandemic levels continuously since April,” said Willie Walsh, Iata Director General.