In the wake of 11 September, booking figures around the world have emerged as an important indicator of the extent of the damage to airline traffic. Amadeus was among those that stepped forward with estimates of the impact around the world. These will run as a monthly series in Airline Business starting with this preview running through to October.
The dramatic collapse of bookings in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks show through clearly in the September figures. Slight signs of stability in October are encouraging. However, what also comes through strongly is just how dark the picture already was before September.
There are some cautions that come with reading too much into the individual monthly results. The timing of key holidays, such as Easter, or how weekends fall within the month, can skew individual results. However, the broad trends are more than clear.
World bookings through to August were virtually unchanged over the previous year. And in North America they were down by more than 5%, after a steady series of monthly falls right through the year. Europe too had started to weaken going into the summer. The strong growth flowing during the first half from the buoyant markets of the Asia-Pacific was stopped in its tracks in September. The only market still holding its own appears to be the resilient Middle East.
The figures are estimated from bookings, net of cancellations, which can be accessed via the Amadeus system. That represents most scheduled airline journeys worldwide.
Amadeus alone processed just under 360 million air travel reservations in 2000, including those of its airline systems users. That is close to 30% of world air bookings, narrowly behind Sabre, with its strong North American market presence.
| Quarterly averages | Last three months | Year to date | |||||
| Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | August | September | October | Jan-Oct | |
| Europe | 3.0 % | 2.2 % | -6.4 % | 1.8 % | -20.6 % | -19.0 % | -2.0 % |
| Africa | 8.7 % | 5.1 % | 0.5 % | 4.7 % | -11.8 % | -12.3 % | 2.9 % |
| Middle east | 9.9 % | 9.0 % | 9.1 % | 10.7 % | 2.7 % | -0.4 % | 8.4 % |
| Asia-Pacific | 12.2 % | 15.4 % | 10.4 % | 19.2 % | -10.6 % | -19.8 % | 9.3 % |
| North America | -5.5 % | -6.3 % | -17.3 % | -4.3 % | -44.2 % | -24.0 % | -10.9 % |
| South America | -3.8 % | -2.9 % | -8.1 % | -4.4 % | -19.2 % | -11.5 % | -5.6 % |
| Total | -0.5 % | -0.8 % | -9.5 % | 0.4 % | -30.0 % | -20.1 % | -5.1 % |
| NOTE: Data is based on Amadeus estimates of global bookings for air travel, net of cancellations, per geographical region. Change shown for current months and quarters against the same period a year earlier. But note that timings of weekends and public holidays may affect result for a particular month. | |||||||
Source: Airline Business
