February Air Passenger Demand Grows 6.1%

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for February 2026 global passenger demand with the following highlights:

Global Overview
- Passenger demand (RPKs) rose 6.1% year-on-year.
- Capacity (ASKs) increased 5.6%.
- Load factor reached 81.4%, the highest February on record.

Regional Breakdown
- Africa: Demand +11.9%, capacity +13.1%, load factor 75.0%.
- Asia-Pacific: Demand +9.1%, capacity +9.0%, load factor 85.5%.
- Europe: Demand +4.9%, capacity +4.3%, load factor 76.9%.
- Latin America/Caribbean: Demand +9.2%, capacity +6.2%, load factor 84.0%.
- Middle East: Demand +0.8%, capacity +3.9%, load factor 79.5%.
- North America: Demand +2.8%, capacity +1.1%, load factor 80.3%.

International Passenger Markets
- Latin America led growth with +13.5% demand, load factor 85.0%.
- Asia-Pacific saw +8.6% demand, boosted by Lunar New Year travel.
- Europe–Asia traffic surged +14%, especially between Asia and Spain/Italy.
- Middle East carriers grew only +0.9%, with load factor slipping to 79.6%.

Domestic Passenger Markets
- Overall domestic demand +6.3%.
- Brazil (+12.6%) and China (+12.5%) drove growth.
- India grew modestly (+0.6%) but maintained the world’s highest load factor at 89.1%.
- U.S. demand rose +1.5%, load factor 79.6%.

Challenges
- Rising fuel costs and war in the Middle East are pushing fares higher.
- March 2026 capacity growth projections have already been revised down to 3.3% (from >5%).

In short, February showed strong fundamentals for passenger demand worldwide, but geopolitical and fuel cost pressures are already reshaping airline strategies.