IATA: 2007 best in recent memory, but no encore performance in 2008

01 February 2008

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced full-year traffic figures yesterday and said that passenger traffic (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) increased 7.4% in 2007, up 1.5 points over the 5.9% growth recorded in 2006.

Average load factor, it said, was at an all-time record of 77% last year, up 1 point from 2006.

"This trend will likely end in 2008 as demand growth is forecast to slow to 5% while capacity rises 5.2%," the organization said.

Middle East carriers recorded traffic growth of 18.1%, which was the highest rate among all regions.

Latin American airlines it said rebounded from a 2.4% decline in traffic in 2006 to post an 8.4% increase in 2007. This has been attributed to the restructuring of Brazilian carrier Varig.

African carriers saw a growth of 8%, while Asia/Pacific airlines posted a traffic increase of' 7.3% nearly matching the global average.