The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its passenger traffic numbers for June and, in turn, compared them to previous years, along with its full-year analysis. The IATA, which is comprised of over 300 airlines that represent 83% of the total seat miles air traffic in the world, announced that the airline industry has almost reached the levels of 2019 travel, which was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total traffic numbers for the month of June

The IATA releases monthly travel numbers for all of the partnered airlines in the association. In June 2023, total traffic, which is measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), rose 31% when compared to June of last year. This means that the airline industry has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and is operating at 94.2% of what it was in June 2019. For the first half of the year, measured from January through June, total traffic was up 47.2% compared to the first half of last year.

The Director General of the IATA, Willie Walsh, spoke about the airline industry's robust recovery. He stated,

"The northern summer travel season got off to a strong start in June with double-digit demand growth and average load factors topping 84%. Planes are full which is good news for airlines, local economies, and travel and tourism-dependent jobs. All benefit from the industry’s ongoing recovery."

The domestic market was a large contributor to the total traffic increase. Domestic traffic went up by 27.2% when compared to the same month a year ago. June 2023 was 5.1% higher than June 2019, indicating domestic traffic has surpassed pre-pandemic travel levels. Additionally, the first half of 2023 was up 33% compared to the first half of last year.

All domestic regions throughout the world showed an increase in RPKs through the month of June, except for Australia. The country experienced a 1.7% decrease compared to June of last year. However, it was still 3.9% above pre-pandemic levels. China had the largest increase year-over-year and showed a 129.6% increase in monthly RPKs.

Increased international travel

International air traffic also increased to represent a jump in total traffic. International traffic showed a 33.7% increase for the month of June. This is compared to June of last year. The RPKs for international travel were nearly 89% of what was recorded in June 2019. Additionally, the first half of 2023 increased by 58.6% compared to the first half of 2022. This shows that all international markets are experiencing growth, although they have not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic traffic levels.

Specifically, the market that experienced the largest amount of growth compared to last June was the Asia-Pacific region. The region showed 90.1% in international traffic RPKs. In addition, capacity increased by 115%, and the load factor increased to a promising 83%.

Each other region of the world experienced a large increase as well. Europe and North America had the lowest increase in RPKs at roughly 13% each. In Europe, airlines posted an overall rise in traffic of 14%. This included a 12.6% increase in capacity and the load factor improving to nearly 89%. North America carriers saw international traffic rise by 23% and had the largest load factor in the world at 90.2%.