KUALA LUMPUR – Preliminary figures released by the showed that the number of international passengers carried by AAPA members declined by 7.8 percent to 11.4 million in January 2009.
Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) terms fell 8.5 percent.
The average passenger load factor was down by nearly five percentage points to 73.9 percent, as capacity for the month was only 2.6 percent lower compared with the same month in 2008.
Commenting on the January results, Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general said, “The operating environment remains extremely challenging.
“The collapse in world trade is having a severe impact on airfreight demand, forcing airlines to temporarily ground a number of dedicated freighter aircraft.
“Passenger travel demand is also weak, with premium traffic particularly hard hit as businesses seek to cut costs in response to the global economic downturn.â€
