Fall in European airline passenger numbers continues

European airline passenger numbers are down 4.9% in May, new figures showed today.

This follows declines of 9.1% in March and 11.0% in April.

Statistics from the Association of European Airlines show that capacity (ASKs, available seat kilometres) was down 2.8% in the month, but RPKs (revenue per passenger kilometre) were only down 2.4%, implying load factors stabilised, +0.4%, having been down 5.5% in the previous month.

Total freight was down 22.9%, its worst performance in the last five months.