Preliminary traffic figures for the month of January 2012 released recently by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed that Asia Pacific airlines carried 17.2 million international passengers in January, a 7.3 per cent growth compared to the same month last year, boosted by an increase in travel during the Lunar New Year holiday season.
In revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) terms, international passenger traffic grew by 6.3 per cent.
Available seat capacity was up by 6.7 per cent, resulting in a slight 0.2 percentage point fall in the average international passenger load factor to 78.2 per cent. Commenting on the results, Andrew Herdman, Director General, AAPA said, “The continuing growth in passenger numbers marks an encouraging start to the year for Asian carriers.” He added, “With Europe sliding into recession, we expect this to be another challenging year for the industry, but remain guardedly optimistic given some tentative signs of recovery in the US and continuing positive momentum here in Asia.”
Click here to see the original article>Available seat capacity was up by 6.7 per cent, resulting in a slight 0.2 percentage point fall in the average international passenger load factor to 78.2 per cent. Commenting on the results, Andrew Herdman, Director General, AAPA said, “The continuing growth in passenger numbers marks an encouraging start to the year for Asian carriers.” He added, “With Europe sliding into recession, we expect this to be another challenging year for the industry, but remain guardedly optimistic given some tentative signs of recovery in the US and continuing positive momentum here in Asia.”