Tuesday May 6, 10:01 AM

Grim ahead as slowdown hits

Figures indicating growth in global air passenger traffic distort the reality of a slowdown in demand.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures for March show 5.8 percent growth on the same month a year earlier.

However, the figure is positively skewed by the Easter holiday period which was in April 2007. Adjusting for this distortion, real traffic growth in March was just four percent.

The slowdown in the demand growth continues the sharp downward trend which began in December 2007 as the impact of the US credit crunch began to be felt in the airline industry, IATA said.

Adjusted figures for March show load factors also fell, by 1.7 percent to 76.1 percent.

While still high, this fall indicated that the slowing of demand occurred faster than airlines could cut capacity, IATA said.

But IATA's Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said traffic figures told only a part of the story and painted a grim picture for global aviation.

Astronomical oil prices are hitting hard. And the buffer of an expanding economy has disappeared. The fortunes of the industry have taken a major turn for the worse, he said. - Travelpress travel news