The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents around 300 airlines worldwide comprising 83 percent of global air traffic, just announced a strong passenger traffic demand in April.
Total traffic last month increased by 45.8 percent in terms of revenue passenger kilometers of RPKs compared to April last year. According to IATA, globally, traffic is now at 90.5 percent of pre-COVID levels while the industry load factor at 81.3 percent was only 1.8 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels.
Domestic traffic for April rose by 42.6 percent compared to the year-ago period and has now fully recovered, posting a 2.9 percent increase over April 2019 results, while international traffic climbed by 48 percent, with all markets recording healthy growth, with carriers in the Asia Pacific region continuing to lead the recovery. International RPKs also reached 83.6 percent of April 2019 levels, IATA said.
IATA director general Willie Walsh explained that April continued the strong traffic trend seen in the first quarter of the year. He added that easing inflation and rising consumer confidence in most OECD countries, combined with declining jet fuel prices, suggest sustained strong air travel demand and moderating cost pressures.
Asia Pacific carriers saw a 22.6 percent increase in traffic compared to April last year, with capacity rising by 145.3 percent and load factor climbing to 81.6 percent.
Our own air carriers are seeing in the improvement in traffic demand and are gearing up for it.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) last March announced that it is expanding significantly its overseas and local network as domestic travel restrictions ease and international borders reopen.
In March alone, PAL added 1,500 flights, representing a 52 percent expansion in regular scheduled flights.
PAL president and COO Stanley Ng said the major expansion demonstrates its confidence that tourist and business travel would rebound strongly in the coming months.
Meanwhile, PAL said flights to the US and Canada would increase by over 24 percent, while flights in Southeast Asia are set for a 98 percent expansion. PAL routes to Japan would rise by 11 percent while the Middle East region would see a 16 percent increase in flights out of Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Hong Kong and Taiwan will increase by nearly 60 percent.
The flag carrier is also set to increase domestic flights by more than 56 percent.
PAL has also announced that it is upgrading its wide-body fleet to significantly improve the experience of travelling on long-haul flights. It is also reactivating more aircraft that have been parked during the pandemic, with its entire fleet of 75 aircrafts expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific revealed that it is spending $650 million to add 15 new aircraft this year. Among the 15, five will be leased mid-life aircraft from various lessors. The remaining 10 will comprise an Airbus A330neo registered RP-C3906, due to be delivered in the coming months to help long-haul capacity levels, and several Airbus A320neos and A321neos.
CEB currently has 65 aircraft in its fleet that operates at least 279 daily flights across 85 routes.
Last year, CEB boosted its domestic share to about 57 percent compared to 52 percent in 2019. It also flew nearly 13.5 million domestic passengers last year, compared to five million international passengers carried.
The international numbers are however expected to rise this year after it announced plans to expand its network last January, with Hong Kong and Tokyo-Narita becoming new destinations from its Mactan-Cebu International Airport hub. It will also soon restore all 25 international destinations, including China.
Also in March, CEB said it is set to exceed its Cebu hub’s pre-pandemic network and capacity which will hit 129 percent in June, as the airline raises to 28 its combined domestic and international routes operating in Mactan-Cebu.
I just hope that our airports are ready to accommodate efficiently all these expected increase in domestic and international travellers.
As early as last February, House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto already highlighted the need to prepare NAIA for the expected surge in passenger traffic, which he said may soon pass the 50-milion mark.
For her part, Sen. Grace Poe has called on government agencies to address the congestion in NAIA, especially during the holidays.
In April 2023, NAIA recorded its highest international passenger volume and flight movement in a single month since the pandemic. NAIA international passengers in April grew 152.7 percent year-on-year while international flights increased 102.2 percent. And combined with domestic numbers, NAIA registered a 50 percent rise in passengers while passengers increased 28 percent.
The country’s main gateway handled 1.678 million international passengers in April compared to 664,824 passengers in the same month last year. Combined with domestic figures, NAIA registered a total of 3.667 million passengers.
An average 75.2 percent flight on-time performance (OTP) was recorded in April, which the Manila International Airport Authority, which manages NAIA, said was an improvement from April 2022’s 71.24 percent. In aviation, an airline departure or arrival is considered to be on time when it occurs within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
According to a March 2023 report by OAG Aviation Worldwide, Tainan Airport in Taipei was ranked first with an OTP for departures of 99.4 percent, a cancellation rate of 0.6 percent. Shonai Airport in Japan ranked second with 99.2 percent on-time departures and zero cancellation rate. Toyoma Airport also in Japan had a 97.6 percent OTP departure rate with zero cancellation. Ranked 10th is Akita in Japan with 94.7 percent.
Manila International Airport had a 47.1 percent on-time departure rate while the Cebu airport had an OTP of 73.8 percent, according to OAG, which is considered as the world’s leading provider of digital flight information, intelligence and analytics for airports, airlines and travel tech companies.
According to MIAA, our OTP was at 75.2 percent in April 2023. Given OAG’s report of 47.1 percent, most of the time, our flights from NAIA are never on time.
How can we ever resolve our airport problems if our government authorities keep denying, if not covering them up?
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