Asia-Pacific air travel demand little affected by higher oil prices - Abacus
SINGAPORE (XFNews) - The number of airline passengers in the Asia-Pacific region continued to rise in July, with higher oil prices having little impact on the demand for travel, according to the latest booking figures issued by travel facilitator Abacus International.
Abacus said that total bookings on the Abacus system in July increased by 9 pct year-on-year to over 3.92 mln, with travel within Asia accounting for more than 84 pct of the total.
"Clearly, the oil price increases had a limited impact on travel demand and we expect to see continued growth in the second half of the year," Abacus president and chief executive officer Don Birch said in a statement.
Abacus noted that crude oil prices have increased by around 40 pct since the start of the year, hitting a high of 70 usd per barrel recently.
Jet fuel prices have risen correspondingly, Abacus said, with the price surging 75 pct over the past year to about 70 usd per barrel.
However, Abacus said that higher ticket prices are not expected to have a significant impact on demand for air travel in the short term.
"The last round of increases in fuel surcharges by several international airlines in May did not seem to have a significant impact on international travel," Abacus said.
"Figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines showed a year-on-year increase of 7.5 pct in international arrivals for the first half of the year, indicating that travel demand was not greatly affected by the higher fuel surcharges," it said.