DOHA: Premium-class passengers accounted for 5.4 percent of total international origin-destination air traffic in the first five months of 2018 – unchanged from the share seen in the same period of 2017.
Premium passenger growth has continued to modestly lag its economy counterpart on the two-largest premium markets in terms of revenue – the North Atlantic and Europe-Asia. The underperformance of the premium cabin has been more stark on routes to/from South America, as well as between Europe and the Middle East.
However, this has been offset in part by stronger showings for premium-class demand to, from and within Asia, and within Europe, IATA’s June-July 2018 ‘airlines financial monitor’ noted.
Industry-wide revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) grew by 7.8 percent year-on-year in June 2018 – up from 6.0 percent in both April and May. After a 0.5 percent monthly fall in May, RPKs rebounded by 1.4 percent in June relative to the previous month. The key point is that passenger demand was carrying solid momentum in SA terms coming into the peak period for demand during the northern hemisphere summer.
Year-on-year growth in industry-wide freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) slowed to 2.7 percent in June – almost half its five-year average pace. Disruption at Nippon Cargo may have affected the result, but the bigger picture is that freight volumes have continued to trend upwards at a more moderate pace than was the case in H1 2017.
Industry-wide available seat kilometres (ASKs) grew by 6.5 percent year-on-year in June. The upward trend in demand has started to outstrip that of capacity once again. It is the reverse situation for air freight, however.
While the upward trend in freight capacity has slowed over the past six months or so, it is continuing to trend upwards at a slightly faster annualized pace than demand. All told, available freight tonne kilometres (AFTKs) rose by 4.1 percent year-on-year in June 2018.
The passenger load factor increased by 1.0 percentage point in June compared to a year ago, taking it to 82.8 percent – a record high for the month. In SA terms, the load factor remains close to the all-time high reached in April. Higher passenger loads are helping to support unit revenues in the face of ongoing weakness in passenger yields.
By contrast, the freight load factor has continued to trend downwards in SA terms, with the series currently back to levels last seen in early-2017. The industry-wide freight load factor fell by 0.7 percentage points in June 2018 compared to the same month a year ago.
