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The agency said in its official statement that there were nearly 3.7 billion people who had taken a scheduled flight in the year 2016,a figure that was six percent better as compared to 2015. The growth was mainly attributed to low-cost carriers. ICAO said that about a billion passengers representing 28% of the world’s total passenger traffic were served by low-cost carriers.
The Revenue Passenger Kms (RPKs) that is used to calculate the passengers who bought airline ticket relative to the distance that they travelled, hit the mark of 7,015 billion RPKs. The figure marked a 6.3% rise from 2015, but it was slower than the 7.1% growth that had been recorded in 2014.
ICAO said that the above conditions along with the cheaper cost of oil have also helped the profitability of the airline in the year 2016.
In 2016, the airline industry had witnessed a profit of $60 billion that was an increase from $58 billion in 2015. ICAO also added that the industry-wide operating margin was quite stable at eight percent. For a consecutive year, over one-third of the profits are believed to come from the carriers of North America. The domestic market represents about 66% of the total operations, as revealed by ICAO. It also added that improving the economic conditions that have been forecast by the World Bank would also observe a greater air traffic growth and air carrier profitability momentum, in 2017.
Budget airlines in Europe accounted for about 32%. It was followed by Asia-Pacific and North America that accounted for 31% and 25% respectively. ICAO said that even though the economic conditions were weak, the global passenger traffic continued to grow, strengthened by lower air fares because of lower air fares as a result of the slump in oil prices.
Source: travelnewsdigest.in