Things in the Sky

IATA just released its latest update on premium traffic with data from September, and the results aren’t the best. Premium traffic was down 13.9%, which is worse than last year. As the report notes, “The question is whether this setback is just the usual volatility – upturns are never smooth – or a change in the previously improving trend.”

I guess one bit of decent news was that revenues were relatively flat – down an estimated 27%, which compares favorably to the estimated 30% decline in the report for August. IATA notes that “Load factors are now back to pre-recession levels which is slowly improving fares and yields.” Take a look at the graph for volume (purple columns) and revenues (blue line):

Let’s just hope this drop in passengers isn’t a reversal in trend.

You can see the whole report here.