By Prince Okafor

Airlines across Africa, recorded a significant increase in passenger traffic, with 116.2 per cent rise in April 2022, when compared to March 2021.

This development was contained in a document made available to Vanguard by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Thursday.

Nigerian commercial airlines flying across Africa space include, Air Peace, Arik Air.

The report noted that, African airlines’ traffic increase is better than the 93.3 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in March 2022.

While month on month, April 2022 figure was up 65.7 per cent and load factor climbed 15.7 percentage points to 67.3 per cent

Commenting on the development, IATA’s Director-General, Willie Walsh, stated that, “With the lifting of many border restrictions, we are seeing the long-expected surge in bookings as people seek to make up for two years of lost travel opportunities.

“April data is cause for optimism in almost all markets, except China, which continues to severely restrict travel.

“The experience of the rest of the world is demonstrating that increased travel is manageable with high levels of population immunity and the normal systems for disease surveillance. We hope that China can recognize this success soon and take its own steps towards normality.”

The report further noted that, European carriers’ April international traffic rose 480 percent versus April 2021, substantially up over the 434.3 per cent increase in March 2022 versus the same month in 2021. Capacity rose 233.5 per cent and load factor climbed 33.7 percentage points to 79.4 percent.

Asia-Pacific airlines saw their April international traffic climb 290.8 per cent compared to April 2021, significantly improved on the 197.2 per cent gain registered in March 2022 versus March 2021. Capacity rose 88.6 per cent and the load factor was up 34.6 percentage points to 66.8 per cent, still the lowest among regions.

While Middle Eastern airlines had a 265.0 per cent demand rise in April compared to April 2021, bettering the 252.7 per cent increase in March 2022, versus the same month in 2021. April capacity rose 101.0 per cent versus the year-ago period, and load factor climbed 32.2 percentage points to 71.7 per cent.

For North American carriers’ April traffic rose 230.2 per cent versus the 2021 period, slightly above the 227.9 per cent rise in March 2022 compared to March 2021. Capacity rose 98.5 per cent, and load factor climbed 31.6 percentage points to 79.3 per cent.

Latin American airlines experienced a 263.2 percent rise in April traffic, compared to the same month in 2021, exceeding the 241.2 percent rise in March 2022 over March 2021.

Latin American April capacity rose 189.1 per cent and load factor increased 16.8 percentage points to 82.3 per cent, which easily was the highest load factor among the regions for the 19th consecutive month.

Vanguard News Nigeria