More people are flying in the USA and around the world in 2014. U.S. domestic airlines carried nearly 497 million passengers around the USA and another 77 million internationally in the first 8 months of 2014.
August 2014 tied the all-time record high month for system-wide load factor at 81.9%, matching September 2011 data for U.S. domestic airlines. in 2014, 574.3 million passengers flying U.S. domestic airlines increased 2.4% from one year ago, while the number of flights flown by domestic airlines decreased 3.0% from one year ago.
An article on Skift U.S. Airline Traffic Snapshot for September 2014 about U.S. domestic carrier traffic had me looking at IATA International Air Transport Association global airline passenger traffic. Most of us are unlikely to follow airline passenger data closely, so here is a snapshot view from data I have seen for recent months.
U.S. Passenger Traffic Data September 2014 (this data is from Skift article who took data from Bureau of Transportation Statistics. I tried searching data on Bureau of Transportation Statistics and that was too confusing.)
August 2014 = 69.3 million domestic and international passengers on U.S. domestic airlines.
September 2014 = 59.9 million domestic and international passengers on U.S. domestic airlines. Domestic airlines saw a 3.3% increase in passenger traffic over Sep 2013. The high volume of passengers in August coincides with peak leisure travel.
January–August 2014 = 574.3 million passengers, up 2.3 % over same period 2013.
IATA Global Snapshot September 2014
September 2014 saw a 5.3% increase in RPK, revenue passenger kilometers over September 2013. This is a measure of actual passenger traffic. There was a 5.7% increase year-to-year in ASK, Available Seat Kilometers, which measures actual airline capacity. The higher airline capacity resulted in an overall decrease globally in the PLF, Passenger Load Factor.
Asia-Pacific Airlines saw passenger growth of 4.8% compared to one year ago, yet capacity grew by 7.2%. More planes are flying in Asia-Pacific.
Latin America Airlines saw growth of 4.6% compared to one year ago, yet capacity grew by 4.9% resulting in reduced passenger load factor.
European carriers posted 3.9% passenger growth. Capacity was up only 2.6%, resulting in high 84.7% load factor. This means planes in Europe are even more crowded than U.S. planes.
Middle East carriers had a bonanza year in passenger traffic with 15.8% increase in international passengers over Sep 2013. Capacity rose 14.9% meaning the Middle East carriers are growing far faster than airlines in other regions.
African Airlines saw a 1.8% rise passenger traffic measured in RPK. Capacity grew 2.6%, so load factors dropped to 70.5%. Airplanes in Africa are the least full of any global region.
U.S. Airlines domestically saw a Sep 2014 year-to-year 3.6% increase of passenger traffic in RPK with only a 1.7% increase in ASK capacity resulting in rising 82.6% passenger load factor.
IATA Nov 4, 2014 – Strong Passenger Growth Continues in September
Total passenger traffic market shares by region of carriers in terms of RPK are: Asia-Pacific 30.2%, North America 23.6%, Europe 29.5%, Middle East 9.2%, Latin America 5.1%, and Africa 2.3%
IATA Dec 4, 2014 – Passenger Traffic Maintains Strong Growth in October
Total passenger traffic market shares by region of carriers in terms of RPK are: Asia-Pacific 30.9%, North America 24.3%, Europe 28.3%, Middle East 8.9%, Latin America 5.4%, and Africa 2.2%.
