IATA reports 'healthy' April passenger demand, while air freight momentum slows
- IATA announced global passenger traffic results for April showing robust demand growth compared to April 2014. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 5.9%. April capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 6.1%, and load factor slipped 0.1 percentage points to 79.4%.Domestic demand grew by 7.2%, outpacing international demand which grew by 5.2% compared to April 2014.
- IATA released data for global air freight markets showing a 3.3% increase in cargo volumes (freight tonne kilometers or FTKs) in April 2015 compared to April in the previous year. While there is growth compared to the same month in 2014, there has been no actual growth in aggregated global cargo volumes since late last year.
- Airlines are mixed after seeing initial strength on DAL guidance/comments: SKYW +2.9%, CEA +1.9%, VLRS +1.5%, ZNH +1.2%, DAL +0.3%, LUV +0.2%, SAVE / RJET /AVH / ALK / VA flat, AAL -0.2%, JBLU -0.2%, JETS -0.2%, UAL -0.8%, HA -0.9%