Global passenger traffic fell 0.5% in September 2026 compared with a year earlier, according to IATA’s October 30 release. International traffic returned to growth, while a deeper fall in domestic demand kept the overall result negative.
Airlines reduced overall capacity by 0.2%. The passenger load factor—the share of available seat-kilometres used—was 83.2%, down 0.3 percentage points from September 2025.
International growth, domestic weakness
| Market | Traffic change, year on year | Load factor |
|---|---|---|
| All scheduled passenger traffic | −0.5% | 83.2% |
| International | +0.4% | 83.6% |
| Domestic | −2.2% | 82.5% |
Latin American carriers led international growth at 8.2%, followed by African carriers at 8.0%. Middle Eastern carriers recorded a 7.5% decline in international traffic. Excluding Middle Eastern airlines, IATA puts overall global traffic growth at 0.3%.
In the domestic markets covered, India’s traffic fell 8.3% and the United States’ fell 2.7%. Growth in Australia, China and Brazil was insufficient to offset the declines across the domestic segment.
What these figures measure
Demand here means revenue passenger-kilometres, or RPK: paid passenger traffic weighted by distance. It is not a count of individual travellers or flights. IATA’s regional airline figures are allocated by the carrier’s place of registration; they do not measure every flight within that geographical region.
The estimates combine reported data with estimates for missing observations and remain subject to revision. The September result is a year-on-year comparison, not a statement about traffic on a particular day in October.
Sources: IATA’s October 30 passenger-demand release and September 2026 Air Passenger Market Analysis, including the report’s market tables and methodology notes.
Related: LATAM’s planned Geneva–São Paulo service for April 2027.
