World scheduled passenger traffic continued to grow by 7% in 1996 and is expected to stay buoyant this year, according to preliminary estimates by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Traffic growth, measured in terms of revenue-passenger kilometres (RPKs), was again led by a 9%rise on international services, where load factors climbed back towards record levels of 69%.
Overall world load factors also edged up to 68%, where they have not been since the boom of the late 1980s. This came through a combination of the strong passenger-demand and an easing in the growth of seat capacity, which rose by an estimated 5%in 1996.
ICAO estimates that world passenger numbers grew slightly more slowly than RPKs, rising by 4%, to 1.35 billion. Growth in freight tonnages slowed even more markedly. Following an 8% growth in 1995, growth in freight tonnages was 4% during 1996, taking the total to 22 million tonnes worldwide.
Source: Flight International
