GENEVA — Air travel is moving “ever closer” to surpassing 2019’s peak year, says IATA, with recovery making major strides last November.

According to new data released for November 2023, air travel demand topped 99% of 2019 levels. Total traffic for the month (measured in revenue passenger kilometres, or RPKs) rose 29.7% compared to November 2022. Globally, traffic is now at 99.1% of November 2019 levels. 

International traffic rose 26.4% versus November 2022, with the Asia-Pacific region reporting the strongest year-over-year results (+63.8%). All regions, however, showed improvement compared to the prior year. In November 2023, international RPKs reached 94.5% of November 2019 levels.

Domestic traffic for November 2023 was up 34.8% compared to November 2022. Total November 2023 domestic traffic was 6.7% above the November 2019 level. Growth was particularly strong in China (+272%), while U.S. domestic travel reached a new high, benefitting from strong Thanksgiving holidays demand and expanding +9.1% over November 2019.

North American carriers saw a 14.3% traffic rise in November versus the same period in 2022. Capacity also increased 16.3% while load factor fell 1.4 percentage points to 80.0%.

“Economic headwinds are not deterring people from taking to the skies. International travel remains 5.5% below pre-pandemic levels but that gap is rapidly closing. And domestic markets have been above their pre-pandemic levels continuously since April,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. “Aviation’s rapid recovery from COVID demonstrates just how important flying is to people and to businesses.”

Walsh also noted how governments recognized the urgent need to transition from jet fuel to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for aviation’s decarbonization.

“The Third Conference on Aviation Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) in November saw governments agree that we should see 5% carbon savings by 2030 from SAF. This was followed up at COP28 in December where governments agreed that we need a broad transition from fossil fuels to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” he said. “Airlines don’t need convincing. They agreed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and every drop of SAF ever made in that effort has been bought and used. There simply is not enough SAF being produced. So we look to 2024 to be the year when governments follow-up on their own declarations and finally deliver comprehensive policy measures to incentivize the rapid scaling-up of SAF production.”

To read the November report, click here.