LAC drops to third place in global passenger traffic recovery

Panama, April 4, 2023 - In February 2023, 27.5 million passengers were carried, representing 98% of passengers for the same month in 2019. This figure reflects a slight advance compared to January this year, when the region reached 96% of its pre-pandemic levels, but a setback vs. December 2022 when 100% of passengers carried in 2019 were reached, report data from the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association's (ALTA) February 2023 Traffic Report.

 

Africa again led the global recovery with a 101% growth in passengers carried and, for the first time, the Middle East practically reached its pre-pandemic levels, exceeding Latin America and Caribbean, which was, until December, the region with the strongest recovery.

 

Data from our region

In February 2023, international traffic in Colombia and Mexico grew by 19% and 15%, respectively, compared to their 2019 levels, and the Dominican Republic reached 108% of its pre-pandemic levels. Brazil, Chile and Argentina had a slight advance compared to January 2023, reaching 78%, 81% and 71%, respectively.

 

This is how domestic passenger traffic is doing

In February 2023, Colombia exceeded its domestic passenger traffic levels of January 2019 by 27%. However, a slowdown in its figures is expected in March, because of the withdrawal of two operators from the market.

 

Meanwhile, Mexico grew by 24% and Argentina practically exceeded its 2019 levels. Brazil was at 89% and Chile was kept at 88%.

 

Top 5 routes to and from LAC

In February 2023, the connected regions with the highest passenger traffic were LAC-North America with 4.9 million passengers, followed by routes between LAC countries with 3.6 million and thirdly by routes from LAC to Europe with 1.2 million passengers.

 

In terms of recovery, routes originating in LAC and destination Middle East achieved the highest recovery on passenger traffic (+28% compared to 2019).

 

(*) In summary

By February, domestic traffic was 0.5% above its 2019 levels, extra-LAC international traffic 2.6% below and intra-LAC traffic 12.6% below its 2019 levels.

 

Cumulative 2023 January-February carried 58.7 million passengers, a 2.9% decrease from 2019.

 

Full report available here: ALTA Traffic Report February 2023