Airports Council International (ACI) World data has revealed that global passenger traffic declined by -91.3% year-over-year in May as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This is slightly above the worst decline of global passenger numbers in the history of the aviation industry of -94.4% which was recorded the previous month in April.
The COVID-19 outbreak continues to heavily impact all major freight markets except for North America, but small gains started to emerge in May when compared to the previous month.
Globally, air freight volumes were reduced by almost a fifth in May, with a drop of -17.9% compared to May 2019.
Substantial losses were recorded in Africa (-38.3%), Latin America-Caribbean (-34.6%), and Middle East (-38.2%) while Asia-Pacific (-21.5%) and Europe (-18.7%) recorded lesser but still sizeable volume losses.
North America recorded a less significant drop of -4.6% in total freight volumes alleviated by a robust domestic freight market that recorded an increase of +0.1% compared to a substantial loss of -11.0% for its International freight market.
The international air freight market’s negative trend has soothed in May with a loss of -19.6% compared to the previous month’s decrease of -26.4%. Domestic freight volumes followed a similar path and posted a slight improvement to -13.6% in May compared to 13.8% in April.
Year-to-date air freight figures for May, as well as the 12-month rolling average, continued their negative trend and are now at -12.3% and -6.7%, respectively.
ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said: ‘“As in previous months, global air freight volumes have not been affected to the same extent as passenger traffic and showed signs of a slight upward curve but, with most of the passenger fleet still grounded, capacity was dramatically reduced.
“Airports are important engines of growth and the recovery of this sector will be a significant driver of the global economic recovery. but this will only be sustained if passengers, staff, and the public have confidence in air travel.”
