JAKARTA - The International Air Transport Association announced on June 30 that global air passenger demand fell 2.2% year-on-year in May.
According to the official data update, global aviation capacity decreased 2.3% compared to May 2025. Despite the reduction in overall available flights, the worldwide passenger load factor reached a record high for May at 83.5%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the previous year. Airlines actively managed their capacity limits to keep average occupancy rates high.
The decline in global passenger traffic varied between international and domestic sectors. Total global domestic traffic fell 3.1% year-on-year. International travel demand fell 1.6% compared to May 2025, though the association noted that international passenger transit outside the Middle East grew by 3.1%.
IATA Director General Willie Walsh said, “In the meantime, airlines who are operating on a 2.0% margin will have little choice but to continue testing demand resilience with higher fares that attempt to cover elevated fuel costs.”
The geopolitical crisis in the Middle East accounted for the sharpest international reductions as the region’s airlines experienced a 28.4% collapse in total travel demand.
The figure represents an improvement from April, when regional traffic plummeted 46.6%. International capacity for Middle Eastern airlines decreased 24.3% in May, driving the regional international load factor down 4.8 percentage points to 76.1%.
In the Asia-Pacific region, total passenger demand fell 1.4% year-on-year, and available capacity decreased 2.4%. Although international traffic for Asia-Pacific carriers grew by 1.3%, a severe domestic contraction in China slowed regional momentum.
China’s domestic passenger demand, on the other hand, dropped 6.2% in May, which the association linked to rising passenger fares and the shifting timeline of the Dragon Boat Festival.
The United Nations Trade and Development agency reported in a new study on June 30 that while an interim agreement led to a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and brought immediate relief to energy markets, logistical progress remains slow.
The report states that 61 developing and vulnerable economies remain severely exposed to compounding fuel and food cost shocks because disrupted transport and supply chains require more time to fully reset.
