The association said that revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) in that month were the highest ever recorded, supported largely by surging demand in China’s domestic market.

RPK is an airline industry metric that shows the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers.

“Planes were full during July as people continued to travel in greater numbers.

“Importantly, forward ticket sales indicate that travellers’ confidence remains high, and there is every reason to be optimistic about the continuing recovery,” said IATA director-general Willie Walsh in a statement.

The trade organisation said that domestic traffic for July rose 21.5% y-o-y and was 8.3% above the July 2019 figures.

As for international traffic, IATA said it climbed 29.6% y-o-y, with all markets showing robust growth.

International RPKs reached 88.7% of July 2019 levels, with the passenger load factor (PLF) for the industry reaching 85.7%, the highest monthly international PLF ever recorded, it said.

PLF is a metric used to gauge how effectively an airline fills seats and generates base fare revenue.

In July, IATA reported that airlines in Asia Pacific maintained their lead relative to other regions, with an impressive 105.8% y-o-y increase in traffic.

Capacity climbed 96.2%, while the load factor increased by 3.9 percentage points to 84.5%.

IATA represents some 300 airlines, comprising 83% of global air traffic. Its statistics cover international and domestic scheduled air traffic for member and non-member airlines.