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Air travel outlook clouded as domestic traffic for January falls

DOMESTIC air travel got off to weak start in 2015 with new figures showing traffic falling 0.3 per cent in January.

New figures show domestic air traffic fell 0.3 per cent in January. Picture: John Appleyard
New figures show domestic air traffic fell 0.3 per cent in January. Picture: John Appleyard

DOMESTIC air travel in Australia got off to weak start in 2015, with figures showing traffic falling 0.3 per cent in January while ­capacity growth flatlined.

Australia was the poorest performer in a basket of countries presented in the International Air transport Association report on traffic demand and fell well below the global average January growth in domestic revenue passenger kilometres of 3.2 per cent.

The load factor in Australia of 76.2 per cent was also below the global average of 77.3 per cent.

Asia-Pacific international ­carriers also had a below-trend start to the year, partly because Chinese New Year fell in Feb­ruary. January growth of 4.7 per cent compared with the same month a year ago was below the annual trend of 5.8 per cent.

IATA said seasonally adjusted growth in the region had been “broadly flat’’ for the past five months. Global passenger traffic grew by 4.6 per cent, compared with full-year growth of 5.9 per cent. A bigger capacity increase of 5.2 per cent saw the average load factor fall 0.5 percentage points to 77.7 per cent. International traffic grew globally by 5.4 per cent with 78 per cent of seats filled.

Middle Eastern international carriers continued to see the ­biggest January traffic growth at 11.4 per cent, followed by Latin America at 5.6 per cent and ­Europe at 5 per cent.

US carriers saw demand rise 2.7 per cent, while traffic at African carriers fell 0.7 per cent due to negative economic developments such as the collapse in the oil price rather than Ebola fears.

Although the January growth failed to match 2014 levels, IATA director-general Tony Tyler said the industry was seeing a “positive albeit slightly slower growth in the demand for air services’’. He said: “While January was a relatively positive start to the year, we cannot look ahead without seeing some significant risk factors in the macro-economic outlook.”

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/air-travel-outlook-clouded-as-domestic-traffic-for-january-falls/news-story/f0501e4bbb0d307b592bb6de16c864f0