Based on IATA's Air Passenger Market Analysis from Dec 2024 the passenger load factors reach a new record; Europe and North America are highest.
Based on the growing demand and usage of capacities travelers might rethink booking strategies for flights because less open capacities before date of flight can be expected.
How do fellow travelers experience this ongoing change of flight market?
Closer monitoring. I usually have a handful of possibilities for a planned trip, I watch both the price and seats sold, or at least those blocked off. If the plane is filling, even if it is early, I might book. I also accept that with higher volumes will likely come fewer deals, and a creep up in prices.
From the article
In addition, all regions, except Europe and North America, saw
higher PLF than 2019.
"How do fellow travelers experience this ongoing change of flight market?"
Increase travel budget.
I watch both the price and seats sold, or at least those blocked off.
@Paul: how does one see seats sold or blocked off for a particular flight?
Mr É
Both regions still have the highest PLFs and these are higher than the 2023-Dec numbers.
And btw the sentence you mentioned seems not fitting to the numbers in chart 6 for Europe: it shows PLF Europe at 86.5% for "2024 - Dec" compared to 83.0% for "2019 - Dec".
Failure or other explanation?
PLF, GMP who knows. The last I heard was that Europe as a whole in 2024 did only slightly more tourism than pre-COVID. Sort of what the PLF thing shows ... maybe. But what the study summary doesnt describe are the hot spots. Spain and Portugal for instance. Then some areas are still not recovered, like parts of Eastern Europe and a lot of Europe is pretty much sitting where it was in 2019. Then there are the one-off things like the Jubilee in Italy. The the PLF is a factor of the amount of serivce to a location moreso than the popularity of a location and there is no way you or I can examine that, so all in all the article really isnt much of a tell for a tourist.
You want cheaper prices be flexible and stay away from the current hot spots. Montenegro instead of Croatia for instance. Airfare is only a part of the cost, you can offset it maybe with cheaper accommodation or by visiting an under discovered region; maybe go to Slovakia or Montenegro or Romania or Bosnia or Bulgaria this year as opposed to paying the prices in Germany or Austria for instance. Of course, whats a holiday if its not to the sort of place you want to see and will enjoy. Decisions, decisions, decisions.......
Abandon all forumulas as to when to buy plane tickets and just track the prices for a while and pounce when the number is reasonable for you.
Otherwise relax and have fun on holiday.
Update and thank you, Mr É.
The IATA was updating the document because I was asking with your help if the sentence you highlighted was a failure. And yes, it was. Update is uploaded already with new sentence:
"In addition, all regions, except North America, saw higher PLF than 2019."
