EUROPEAN AIRLINE TRAFFIC IN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2008
Source: AEA 22/10/2008
The Association of European Airlines has released traffic and capacity data for its members in August and September 2008.
Passenger traffic development reached a tipping point in late summer, when a marginal growth of 1.6% in August was followed by a decrease of 1.1% in September. While negative monthly figures are not unprecedented, previous decreases have been triggered by external shocks such as 9/11, SARS and the Gulf Wars; this was the first traffic loss since the early 1980s which was attributable to essentially economic factors.
The August figure was the third in a succession of low growth figures (June: 2.0%, July: 1.2%) which demonstrated a continued resilience in the market while conditions worsened on all fronts.
AEA members’ three major operating regions – cross-border Europe, North Atlantic and Far East – which together account for 70% of passenger-kilometres, increased at 1.4%, 0.9% and 1.5% respectively in August and slipped to decreases of 1.1%, 1.1% and 0.8% in September. The downward trend was compounded by a strong decrease in Domestic traffic, of minus 7.9% in August and 12.4% in September.
The South Atlantic market continued to buck the trend with a 13.0% increase in August and 9.5% in September, and some buoyancy remained in Middle Eastern markets.
Load factors continued to slide as traffic development failed to match modest 3.0% increases in capacity in August and 2.3% in September. While the North Atlantic, with a 0.5% capacity increase in August and decrease of 0.5% in September, was still able to record a small load factor improvement in August, by September figures were down across all operating regions, for an overall loss of 2.6 percentage points – translating into a massive burden on the industry’s profitability.
Said AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus: “In terms of response to purely economic stimuli, these figures are the weakest our industry has seen for 25 years, and with the major European economies still in transition to a recessionary state they cannot be expected to recover in the immediate future. The toxic combination of economic slowdown, a steep decline in business and consumer confidence, and fuel price-driven inflation which is hitting both the airlines and their customers is challenging the very structure of the industry”.
"The time could not be worse," he added, "to be hastily finalising, without any impact assessment, the design elements of the looming Emissions Trading Scheme, which high auctioning levels have transformed into a barely disguised kerosene tax – and this on top of a proliferation of national taxes, making both airlines and their passengers pay for their carbon footprint several times over."
The full report can be found here : http://files.aea.be/News/PR/Pr08-034.pdf
Source: AEA 22/10/2008
The Association of European Airlines has released traffic and capacity data for its members in August and September 2008.
Passenger traffic development reached a tipping point in late summer, when a marginal growth of 1.6% in August was followed by a decrease of 1.1% in September. While negative monthly figures are not unprecedented, previous decreases have been triggered by external shocks such as 9/11, SARS and the Gulf Wars; this was the first traffic loss since the early 1980s which was attributable to essentially economic factors.
The August figure was the third in a succession of low growth figures (June: 2.0%, July: 1.2%) which demonstrated a continued resilience in the market while conditions worsened on all fronts.
AEA members’ three major operating regions – cross-border Europe, North Atlantic and Far East – which together account for 70% of passenger-kilometres, increased at 1.4%, 0.9% and 1.5% respectively in August and slipped to decreases of 1.1%, 1.1% and 0.8% in September. The downward trend was compounded by a strong decrease in Domestic traffic, of minus 7.9% in August and 12.4% in September.
The South Atlantic market continued to buck the trend with a 13.0% increase in August and 9.5% in September, and some buoyancy remained in Middle Eastern markets.
Load factors continued to slide as traffic development failed to match modest 3.0% increases in capacity in August and 2.3% in September. While the North Atlantic, with a 0.5% capacity increase in August and decrease of 0.5% in September, was still able to record a small load factor improvement in August, by September figures were down across all operating regions, for an overall loss of 2.6 percentage points – translating into a massive burden on the industry’s profitability.
Said AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus: “In terms of response to purely economic stimuli, these figures are the weakest our industry has seen for 25 years, and with the major European economies still in transition to a recessionary state they cannot be expected to recover in the immediate future. The toxic combination of economic slowdown, a steep decline in business and consumer confidence, and fuel price-driven inflation which is hitting both the airlines and their customers is challenging the very structure of the industry”.
"The time could not be worse," he added, "to be hastily finalising, without any impact assessment, the design elements of the looming Emissions Trading Scheme, which high auctioning levels have transformed into a barely disguised kerosene tax – and this on top of a proliferation of national taxes, making both airlines and their passengers pay for their carbon footprint several times over."
The full report can be found here : http://files.aea.be/News/PR/Pr08-034.pdf