Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed a continuation of established trends this year, with further growth in international air passenger travel.
Asia Pacific-based airlines carried a total of 16.5 million international passengers in October, an increase of five percent compared to the same month last year.
Overall, international passenger traffic, in revenue passenger kilometre terms (RPK), grew by 5.1%.
Available seat capacity grew by 8.8% as a result of additional aircraft deliveries, resulting in a 2.7 percentage point fall in the average international passenger load factor, to 76.4%.
Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general said Asian carriers had continued to see growth in demand for both business and leisure travel, with an overall 3.7% increase in international passenger numbers for the first ten months of the year.
“Asian airlines are continuing to benefit from relatively strong economic growth in developing economies across the region, but airline margins have been squeezed by sharply higher fuel prices this year.â€
