Airlines saw their global business in May approach pre-pandemic levels, at 96.1% of the same month's 2019 level, their main association announced on Thursday.
This recovery was driven by domestic routes. International routes, meanwhile, returned to 90.8% of the levels of four years ago in May as they restarted later, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
May was the second month in a row that passenger numbers on these routes were higher than before the pandemic.
IATA announced in early June that it expected 4.35 billion individual air journeys this year – close to the record of 4.54 billion in 2019. The association also welcomed an aircraft load factor of 81.8% in May, back to its pre-Covid 19 level.
Having lost almost two thirds of its passengers in 2020, the airline industry has since recovered: IATA said it expected its members to make a global profit of $9.8 billion (€9 billion) this year, after cumulative losses of $183 billion (€168 billion) in 2020-2022.
"Strong demand for travel is one of the main reasons for airlines' return to profitability," IATA Director General Willie Walsh announced in a statement. "People need to fly, and like it."
The 2022 profit, however, represents just $2.25 (€2.07) per passenger, Walsh reiterated, deeming this margin "not sustainable in the long term".
In fact, he felt that the aviation value chain remained "unbalanced", citing the cumulative profits of $7 billion (€6.4 billion) made in 2022 by European airports, according to their association ACI Europe.
