International passenger demand slowing?

Whatever trends the major airlines were enjoying over their low-cost domestic rivals could be slipping, as the lucrative transAtlantic and transPacific markets start to slow. Delta, Northwest, United and American all say international demand (and capacity) is rising faster than domestic U.S. routes. But could that flight have left the gate?


International passenger air traffic grew 6.3% on the first six months of 2007, higher than the 5.9% growth in all of 2006, the International Air transport Association said on Monday. Not bad, right? But there's a dark cloud: In the summer travel month of June, passenger travel grew much slower, by 5.3% - the lowest rate in 9 months, the group said. Load factors climbed to 75.7% in the first 6 months of 2007. Other highlights from IATA's announcement:

• Asia-Pacific’s carriers will receive the biggest share (35%) of the newly-delivered aircraft ove rthe next 18 months, to meet demand in the fast-growing Chinese and Indian markets.
• European airlines will take delivery of 26%
• North American airlines will take on 25%

The group also decried the British Airport Authority's security procedures, which they said would be under the microscope in the heavy travel month of August:

"A particular focus will be the UK, where unique screening policies inconvenience passengers with no improvement in security. The only beneficiary is the airport operator—BAA—that continues to deliver embarrassingly low service levels by failing to invest in appropriate equipment and staff to meet demand. This must stop.”

News you can use when you book an airline ticket

The good people over at Consumerist have highlighted a great item, on the intersection of data and anecdote. It's a study from Popular Mechanics and confirms what most flyers knew already: It's safer in the back.

Where detailed seating charts were available, we also calculated survival rates for various parts of the passenger cabin. Again, the trend was clear: The rear cabin (seats located behind the trailing edge of the wing) had the highest average survival rate at 69 percent. The overwing section had a 56 percent survival rate, as did the coach section ahead of the wing. First/business-class sections (or in all-coach planes, the front 15 percent) had an average survival rate of just 49 percent.

Consumerist post here.


Popular Mechanics article here