IATA releases industry highlights for 2012

IATA released (16-Jul-2013) the 57th Edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) yearbook and provided the following snapshot of 2012 performance:

Passenger highlights:

• Systemwide, airlines carried 2.977 billion passengers on scheduled services;
• • Asia-Pacific: 947.9 million passengers;
  • North America: 808.1 million;
  • Europe: 780.6 million;
  • Latin America: 226.5 million;
  • Middle East: 144.1 million;
  • Africa: 69.8 million.
• Developing economies continued to drive global demand growth: 65% of the growth in passenger numbers on international services in 2012 occurred on markets linked to emerging markets;
• Premium travel segment slipped to 7% of total international travel in 2012, but yields for the segment were more robust than for the economy segment, and premium travel accounted for 27% of international passenger revenues;
• Top countries by region (passengers carried);
• • Africa: South Africa (20.4 million);
  • Asia-Pacific: China (361.4 million);
  • Europe: United Kingdom (171.5 million);
  • Latin America and Caribbean: Brazil (88.9 million);
  • Middle East: UAE (40.6 million);
  • North America: US (598.2 million). The US continues to be the largest single market for air travel;
• Countries with high year-over-year increase in passenger growth included Indonesia (18.2%), Thailand (17.7%) and Turkey (16.7%).
• Top five airlines by total scheduled passengers:
• • Delta Air Lines (116.7 million);
  • Southwest Airlines (112.2 million);
  • United Airlines (92.6 million);
  • American Airlines (86.3 million);
  • China Southern Airlines (86.3 million).
• Top three international city-pairs:
• • Hong Kong-Taipei (5.5 million);
  • Seoul-Tokyo (3.6 million);
  • Kuala Lumpur-Singapore (3.4 million).
• The top three domestic city-pairs:
• • Jeju-Seoul (9.5 million);
  • Sapporo-Tokyo (8.8 million);
  • Fukuoka-Tokyo (7.6 million).

Cargo highlights:

• Air freight markets suffered another difficult year punctuated by shrinking demand, falling utilisation and lower yields.
• Global freight tonne kilometers decreased by 1.1% compared to 2011 but still represented an estimated USD6.4 trillion of goods by value;
• The top five airlines ranked by total scheduled freight tonnes:
• • Federal Express (6.9 million);
  • UPS Airlines (4.6 million);
  • Emirates (2.0 million);
  • Korean Air (1.5 million);
  • Cathay Pacific Airways (1.4 million).

Fuel:

• Global commercial air transport consumed 73 billion US gallons of fuel at an estimated cost of USD209 billion, 33% of airline operating costs;
• The rise in the price of jet fuel since 2010, to an average of USD130 per barrel in 2012, has added over USD60 billion to the industry's fuel bill.
• IATA member airlines fuel efficiency improved by 18% during the 2001-2012 period from 45.0 to 36.8 liters per 100 revenue tonne kilometers. Fuel efficiency improved by 1.7% in 2012 compared to 2011.

Fleet and assets utilisation

• 1374 jets and turboprop aircraft delivered in 2012, adding 7-8% to industry capacity. Less fuel-efficient aircraft were retired or put in storage resulting in a net fleet expansion of 500 aircraft.
• 24,911 aircraft were in commercial airline service at the end of 2012.

Airline Alliances:

• Star Alliance maintained its position as the largest airline alliance in 2012 with 25.2% of the total IATA scheduled traffic (RPKs), followed by SkyTeam (19.8%) and oneworld (14.1%). [more - original PR]