IATA
Global passenger demand was down by 70.3% in November 2020 compared with the same period last year. Credit: Akshay Chauhan on Unsplash.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that the global passenger demand has dropped significantly during November 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), total passenger demand declined by 70.3% compared with the same period last year.

During the month, capacity dropped by 58.6% compared with the previous year while the load factor declined 23.0 percentage points to 58.0%.

The report also shows that the international passenger demand in November was 88.3% below November 2019.

International capacity fell 77.4% from last year while load factor dipped 38.7 percentage points to 41.5%.

IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said: “The already tepid recovery in air travel demand came to a full stop in November.

“That’s because governments responded to new outbreaks with even more severe travel restrictions and quarantine measures.

“This is clearly inefficient. Such measures increase hardship for millions. Vaccines offer the long-term solution.

“In the meantime, testing is the best way that we see to stop the spread of the virus and start economic recovery. How much more anguish do people need to go through—job losses, mental stress—before governments will understand that?”

Besides passenger demand, the IATA data also revealed that global air freight markets in November remain constraint compared with 2019, despite showing improvement compared with October.

Air cargo demand was still down by 6.6% compared with the levels recorded in November 2019 and global capacity decreased by 20%.