The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has revealed data confirming that passenger demand in the month of September was extremely low.
The total demand that is measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) was 73 percent below September 2019 levels. There is a tiny bit of improvement over the 75 percent year-to-year decline noted in August.
The figures show that the capacity was down 63 percent compared to a year ago
Also, load factor fell 22 percentage points to 60 percent.
Additionally, the international passenger demand in September dropped 89 percent compared to September 2019. This means that the demand has not changed from the 88.5 percent decline observed in August. Capacity plummeted 79 percent, and load factor withered 38 percentage points to 43 per cent.

Furthermore, domestic demand was down 43 percent in September compared to the previous year. However, this was a slight improvement from a 51 percent decline in August.
Compared to last year, capacity fell by a third and the load factor dropped 12 percentage points to 70 per cent.
Alexandre de Juniac, Director General, IATA, said, “We have hit a wall in the industry’s recovery. A resurgence in COVID-19 outbreaks – particularly in Europe and the US has halted momentum toward re-opening borders to travel. This combined with the governments’ reliance on the blunt instrument of quarantine in the absence of globally aligned testing regimes, has further slowed the recovery. However domestic markets are doing better. This is primarily owing to improvements in China and Russia. But domestic traffic represents just a bit more than a third of total traffic, so it is not enough to sustain a general recovery.”
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