African airlines have recorded an increase of 90.5 percent in international Revenue Passenger Kilometre (RPK), between September 2021 and September 2022.
The increase is as a result of the rise in number of Africans, Nigerians and Kenyans specifically, moving to countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, for greener pastures.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) disclosed this in its Air Passengers Market Analysis (September edition).
RPK is an airline industry metric that shows the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers. It is calculated as the number of revenue passengers multiplied by the total distance travelled.
According to IATA, the September 2022 capacity was up 47.2 per cent even as the load factor climbed 16.7 percentage points to 73.6 per cent, the lowest among regions.
African airlines witnessed steady recovery with 90.5 per cent YoY growth in September.
International RPKs have recovered consistently, accelerating in 2022. Nevertheless, RPKs remain 26.4 per cent lower than in the same month of 2019.
The report showed that total traffic in September 2022 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 57.0 per cent compared to September 2021. Globally, traffic is now at 73.8% of September 2019 levels.
“Domestic traffic for September 2022 was up 6.9 per cent compared to the previous year while total September 2022 domestic traffic was at 81 per cent of the September 2019 level.
“International traffic rose by 122.2% in the review period compared to September 2021. September 2022 international RPKs reached 69.9% of September 2019 levels. All markets reported strong growth, led by Asia-Pacific,” it further indicated.
IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh, said that the global air transport demand has continued to improve post-pandemic, except for China.
