With pandemic, airline sector indicators drop 50% by 2020

Air transport presented a retraction of 29.5% in the demand of transported paid passengers (RPK) and of 27.6% in the offer of seats-kilometers (ASK) in the domestic market in December 2020. With this result, the year-to-date demand and supply were down 48.7% and 47%, respectively. This was the worst performance of these indicators in more than a decade.

Despite the strong retraction accumulated in the year, caused by the pandemic provoked by the new coronavirus, the December data in the domestic market were the best since the beginning of the outbreak of the disease in the country. The detailed figures are available for consultation in the report released (click to access) on January 20 by the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC).

The number of paid passengers on domestic flights in December 2020 was 5.6 million, 36.4% less than the same month last year. However, it was the highest volume recorded since February 2020. From January to December 2020, 45.2 million paid domestic passengers were carried, a cumulative drop of 52.5% compared to the same period in 2019.

The average percentage of aircraft occupancy in the domestic market last December was 81.6%, down 2.5% from the same month in 2019. In the 12 months of the year, the rate was 80%, which represents a 3.2% retraction compared to the same period of the previous year.

Cargo and mail transportation in the domestic market closed the last month of the year with a negative variation of 12.5% compared to December 2019. The volume of cargo transported for the entire period of 2020 was 324,438 tons, a value 28.3% lower than was ascertained in the same period of the previous year.

International Market

The demand and supply in the international market accumulated a drop of 71% and 62.6%, respectively, from January to December last year compared to the same period of 2019. In the last month of 2020, the indicators also showed negative variation when compared to the same month of the previous year, on the order of 77.3%, in RPK, and 67.1%, in ASK.

During the entire year of 2020, 6.75 million paid passengers were transported in the international market. The number is 72% lower than was recorded in the accumulated 12 months of the previous year. The total number of paid passengers carried in December was 408,000, 80.3% lower than in the same period of 2019. The indicator has shown retraction in the last 17 consecutive months.

Access the other data published in the Air Transport Demand and Supply Report (in Portuguese only).