IATA: Asia Pacific was the most resilient region for air travel in May-2020

IATA, via its Jul-2020 Asia Pacific Regional Briefing, reported (22-Jul-2020) reported Asia Pacific airline RPKs contracted 83% year-on-year against an industry wide contraction of 94%. IATA stated this represents the most resilient outcome amongst all regions and can be attributed to tentative signs of recovery in some of the domestic markets. The majority of the region's key international and domestic routes remained closed amidst strict travel restrictions around the world. Looking forward,some improvement in demand is expected since countries started to loosen their lock downs and airlines have been restoring some of their seat capacity. Asia Pacific capacity fell 77.5%, and load factor declined 18.4pp to 62.0%, compared with an industry wide decline of 31pp, to 50.7%. [more - original PR]