The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released data for November 2023 indicating that traffic reached 99 per cent of November 2019 levels, the peak year for air travel.
In November 2023 revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) flown rose 29.7 per cent compared to November 2022 reached 99.1 per cent of November 2019 levels.
According to IATA, international traffic rose 26.4 per cent, while domestic traffic for November 2023 was up 34.8 per cent year on year. Total November 2023 domestic traffic was 6.7 per cent above the November 2019 level.
Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said: "We are moving ever closer to surpassing the 2019 peak year for air travel. Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies."
International travel remains 5.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels but domestic markets have been above their pre-pandemic levels continuously since April last year.
International RPKs provided by European carriers
increased 14.8 per cent YoY, which was 30.8 per cent of the world share, and reached 97.1 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
European carriers
also reported a global RPKs increase of 13.6 per cent.
Walsh said that as air travel returns to pre-pandemic levels the move towards sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption is imperative, with the third conference on Aviation Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) in November seeing governments agree on a target of five per cent carbon savings by 2030 through the use of SAF.
He said despite the airline industry's best efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 there is "simply not enough SAF being produced".
Walsh added: "So we look to 2024 to be the year when governments follow-up on their own declarations and finally deliver comprehensive policy measures to incentivise the rapid scaling-up of SAF production."