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Johannesburg - African carriers saw passenger demand fall 7.0% year on year in March, compared with the same period in 2010, as the turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa, as well as the Japanese earthquakes, tsunami and nuclear threat, cut international air traffic, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Releasing the latest international traffic results on Tuesday, the association said this was an improvement from the 9.7% drop recorded in February.
Globally, IATA said scheduled international traffic results for March showed that year-on-year growth in passenger demand had slowed to 3.8% from the 5.8% recorded in February.
Conversely, year-on-year growth in freight markets rebounded to 3.7% in March from the 1.8% recorded in February.
Compared with February, global passenger demand fell by 0.3% in March, while cargo demand expanded by 4.5%.
"The profile of the recovery in air transport sharply decelerated in March. The global industry lost two percentage points of demand as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and north Africa," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director-general and CEO.
The impact of the events in Japan on global international traffic was a 1% loss of traffic in March, Bisignani said.
Looked at regionally, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a traffic loss of more than 2%, North American carriers had a 1% drop and Europe's carriers a 0.5% fall.
Japan's domestic market was the most severely affected, with a 22% fall in demand.
The disruptions in the Middle East and north Africa cut international travel by 0.9 percentage points, IATA said.
"Egypt and Tunisia experienced traffic levels that were 10%-25% below normal for March. Military action in Libya virtually stopped civil aviation to, from and within that country," it added.
Capacity adjustments lagged behind the sudden drop in demand. Against global demand growth of 3.8%, capacity expanded by 8.6%. The average load factor fell by 3.5 percentage points to 74.6%.
Releasing the latest international traffic results on Tuesday, the association said this was an improvement from the 9.7% drop recorded in February.
Globally, IATA said scheduled international traffic results for March showed that year-on-year growth in passenger demand had slowed to 3.8% from the 5.8% recorded in February.
Conversely, year-on-year growth in freight markets rebounded to 3.7% in March from the 1.8% recorded in February.
Compared with February, global passenger demand fell by 0.3% in March, while cargo demand expanded by 4.5%.
"The profile of the recovery in air transport sharply decelerated in March. The global industry lost two percentage points of demand as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and north Africa," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director-general and CEO.
The impact of the events in Japan on global international traffic was a 1% loss of traffic in March, Bisignani said.
Looked at regionally, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a traffic loss of more than 2%, North American carriers had a 1% drop and Europe's carriers a 0.5% fall.
Japan's domestic market was the most severely affected, with a 22% fall in demand.
The disruptions in the Middle East and north Africa cut international travel by 0.9 percentage points, IATA said.
"Egypt and Tunisia experienced traffic levels that were 10%-25% below normal for March. Military action in Libya virtually stopped civil aviation to, from and within that country," it added.
Capacity adjustments lagged behind the sudden drop in demand. Against global demand growth of 3.8%, capacity expanded by 8.6%. The average load factor fell by 3.5 percentage points to 74.6%.
