In January 2025, Montreal (Canada)-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its ‘Full-year and December 2024 international passenger market performance data’, showing record-high demand for air travel. As per the report, India’s domestic flights have recorded a Passenger Load Factor (PLF) of 86.4% in 2024 (down by 0.6% point compared to 2023), the highest among all domestic markets.
- India has surpassed the United States of America (USA) (84.1%) and China (83.2%), are ranked at 2nd and 3rd position respectively.
- As per Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s data, the aviation sector in India witnessed 163 million passengers boarding domestic flights in 2024.
Key Findings :
i.Brazil secured 4th spot with a PLF of 81.9%, followed closely by Australia (81.8%) and Japan (78%) ranked at 5th and 6th spot respectively.
ii.IATA’s domestic full-year traffic report revealed that domestic-full year demand reached record highs in terms of passenger numbers and load factors.
- Domestic full-year traffic for 2024 increased 5.7% compared to previous year while capacity increased by 2.5%.
iii.China once again emerged as the standout performer for domestic Revenue Passenger Kilometer (RPK), which has increased by 12.3% in 2024 compared to 2023.
- Japan recorded 3.2% growth while capacity declined by 0.3%.
iv.Domestic RPKs represented about 38.2% of the total market in 2024.
Other Key Findings:
i.Total full-year traffic: The report showed that the total full-year in 2024 measured in RPKs has increased by 10.4% compared to 2023. This increase was 3.8% above pre-pandemic (2019) levels.
- The total capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) has increased by 8.7% in 2024.
- As per the report, the overall PLF reached 83.5% in 2024, a record for full-year traffic.
ii.International full-year traffic: As per the report, international full-year traffic increased 13.6% in 2024 compared to 2023, and the capacity increased by 12.8%.
- Also, full-year international traffic for year 2024 has surpassed the previous record of 2019 by 0.5%, with growth in all regions but capacity was 0.9% lower than 2019.
- The load factor improved by 0.5%, to 83.2%, a record high.
iii.December 2024: The report further highlighted that December month of 2024 was a strong finish to the year with overall demand increasing 8.6% Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) and capacity has increased by 5.6%. December load factor reached 84%, a record high for any month.
- International demand in December 2024 has increased by 10.6%, capacity increased by 7.7% and the PLF improved by 2.2% points (compared to December 2023) to 83.9%.
- As per the report, domestic demand increased by 5.5% in 2024 compared to previous year.
iv.Percentage share of region carriers of total passenger market for 2024 in terms of RPK are: Asia Pacific (33.5%), Europe (26.7%), North America (22.9%), Middle East (9.4%), Latin America (5.3%) and Africa (2.2%).
Points to Note:
i.Revenue Passenger Kilometer (RPK) is a key metric to assess airline performance and demand in terms of number of passengers carried by it and distance they travel.
ii.Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) is used to measure available passenger capacity and PLF is % of ASKs used.
About International Air Transport Association (IATA):
Director General (DG) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Willie Matthew Walsh
Headquarters- Montreal, Canada
Established- 1945
