3.7 billion passengers globally travelled on schedule services in 2016

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has released preliminary figures showing a total of 3.7 billion passengers traveled on scheduled services during 2016, representing a 6 percent increase from 2015.

Total departures rose to approximately 35 million globally and world passenger traffic increased by 6.3 percent to 7,015 billion scheduled revenue passenger-kilometers (RPKs), although that rate was down from 7.1 percent achieved in 2015.

“Over half of the world’s tourists who travel across international borders each year were transported by air.

“Despite the weak economic conditions, global passenger traffic continued to grow helped by the lower air fares owing to the fall in oil prices,” the organization reported.

ICAO said fuel accounted for nearly one-fifth of the industry’s operating costs in 2016 after accounting for one-third in 2015.

“Significant decrease in fuel costs helped airlines to maintain their operating profit at the same level as the previous year: the airline industry is expected to end 2016 with another record operating profit of around USD 60 billion and an operating margin of 8.0 per cent.

“This comes after an operating profit of USD 58 billion and an operating margin of 8.0 per cent in 2015. For a consecutive year, more than a third of the profits are expected to come from the carriers of North America, whose domestic market represents 66 per cent of their total operations. Improving economic conditions forecast by the World Bank will see traffic growth and air carrier profitability momentum continuing in 2017,” the organization reported