Recovery in air travel has accelerated heading into the busy Northern hemisphere summer travel season, according to Iata passenger data for May 2022.

The latest report highlighted the following.

• Total traffic in May 2022 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) was up 83.1% compared with May 2021, largely driven by the strong recovery in international traffic. Global traffic is now at 68.7% of pre-crisis levels. 
• Domestic traffic for May 2022 was up 0.2% compared with the same period a year ago. Significant improvements in many markets were masked by a 73.2% year-on-year decline in the Chinese domestic market due to COVID-19-related restrictions. May 2022 domestic traffic was 76.7% of May 2019.
• International traffic rose 325.8% versus May 2021. The easing of travel restrictions in most parts of Asia is accelerating the recovery of international travel. May 2022 international RPKs reached 64.1% of May 2019 levels.

From a regional perspective, African airlines had a 134.9% rise in May RPKs versus a year ago. May 2022 capacity was up 78.5% and load factors climbed 16.4 percentage points to 68.4%, the lowest among regions. 

“The travel recovery continues to gather momentum. People need to travel, and when governments remove COVID-19 restrictions, they do. Many major international route areas – including within Europe, and the Middle East-North America routes – are already exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels,” said Iata Director General, Willie Walsh. 

He noted that the major exception to the optimism of this rebound in travel was China, which saw a dramatic 73.2% fall in domestic travel compared with the previous year. “Its continuing zero-COVID policy is out-of-step with the rest of the world and it shows in the dramatically slower recovery of China-related travel,” said Walsh. 

Strains in European and North American hubs

Walsh cautioned that, with the peak summer season in the Northern hemisphere, strains in the system are appearing in some European and North American hubs. 

“Nobody wants to see passengers suffering from delays or cancellations. But passengers can be confident that solutions are being urgently implemented. Airlines, airports and governments are working together, however standing up the workforce needed to meet growing demand will take time and require patience in the few locations where the bottlenecks are the most severe,” he said. 

Click HERE to view the full report.