The Week in Stats: Air Travel Keeps Trending Up

Nov 7, 2014 5:07am

This week in stats brought even more positive signs for the air travel sector, with demand up in September and growing interest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Air Passenger Numbers Grow 5.3 Percent in September

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According to a new analysis from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), global air travel demand rose 5.3 percent in September over the same month last year.

Demand was measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs).

This continues the positive growth trend for passenger demand even though the performance was slightly below the August year-over-year rise of 6.3 percent. September capacity rose 5.1 percent and load factor rose 0.2 percentage points to 80.3 percent.

Source: IATA

Short-Haul Searches to Asia Pacific Rise

45 percent of searches to the Asia-Pacific region were for five days or less, according to data from Sojern's new Q3 2014 Global Travel Insights report. The searches were mostly due to regional travelers taking short trips.

Sojern also looked at the top 10 global destinations based on search traffic.

Source: Sojern

The Biggest Business Travel Savings

Negotiated discounts (90 percent), better policy management (81 percent) and more efficient processes (79 percent) lead to the biggest business travel savings, according to a new study by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). The largest costs for travel managers justifiably come from the TMCs, including transaction-based fees and after-hours booking fees or services.

The study, “What Costs and Savings Do Managed Travel Programs Experience?” sponsored by Accor, surveyed nearly 200 U.S. based travel managers of companies with a global or multi-national presence.

GBTA says the goal was to produce a comprehensive list of managed travel program costs and savings, specifically related to hotels and Travel Management Companies (TMCs) or agencies, to better understand where travel managers can benefit, eliminate or reduce costs.

“Across the board, we found that Travel Managers understand that the benefits of long-term travel savings far outweigh the upfront costs having a Travel Management Company,” said Joseph Bates, GBTA Foundation’s vice president of research. “By using TMCs, businesses have a partner that brings valuable experience and leverage with suppliers to the table.”