SkiftStats: Global air traffic growth slows as airlines ready to cut more capacity

New numbers by IATA show slowing air traffic growth in July 2012, as a result of economic and business conditions worldwide. Some details:

— July passenger demand in aggregate was 3.4% higher than the same month last year, compared to a 6.3% increase in June and average growth of 6.5% over the first half of the year.

— July international passenger demand was up 3.5% compared to the year-ago period, exactly in line with a 3.5% expansion in capacity. Load factors stood at 83.3%.

— European carriers recorded 4.8% growth (down from 7.3% in June) on international services compared to July 2011 with an average load factor of 85.7%.

— North American airlines’ international traffic fell 2.1% year-on-year in July (after rising 1.6% in June) in part owing to decisions to trim capacity, particularly on the North Atlantic market.

— Asia-Pacific carriers saw demand growth of just 0.9%. This is a major slowdown from the 5.8% recorded in the June year-on-year comparison.

— Latin American airlines posted growth of 5.7%, second highest among the regions. The load factor stood at 82.0%.

Lots more data in the full PDF below:

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