AIR TRANSPORT MARKET ANALYSIS MAY 2012

To read this latest IATA report click here
http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/MIS_Note_May12.pdf

Here are some of its key points

v  Air travel markets in May are showing some signs of weakness, after several months of strong growth;

v  Year-on-year growth in passenger travel was down in May compared to April; with business confidence and growth in world trade both softening in recent months;

v  Passenger demand increased by 4.5% in May compared to a year ago and the growth trend over the month was almost flat;

v  The trend in air freight continues to show some positive signs, although the recovery is very small - May air freight traffic is about 1.5% above Q4 2011 levels;

v  On a year ago, air freight was down by 1.9%, but that is an improvement on April;

v  The improvement in air freight is narrowly based, with Middle Eastern airlines capturing 50% of the growth in air freight from late 2011 to May;

v  On international passenger markets, all regions except for the Middle East have shown decline in year-on-year growth rates in May compared to April;

v  On domestic passenger markets, China’s domestic travel weakened further with another month of relatively slow growth, while in India, domestic travel fell sharply in May compared to April;

v  Passenger load factors fell in May after reaching seasonally adjusted record highs in April, while air freight load factors are still above the 2011 year-end lows;

v  Weakness in demand and softening load factors will provide offsetting pressure to the benefits of falling fuel prices on airline profits in Q2.

- IATA Economics -