Airline passenger and cargo traffic improving

Passenger and cargo demand for air transport was up by approximately one per cent from capacity realised during the same months last year according to a news statement.

Kampala
The number of people travelling by air worlwide and within Uganda is increasing, signaling the recession is easing and that better pay days lie ahead for players in both the airline and tourism industries.

On Monday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that global airline traffic for scheduled flights during October showed “improving conditions” in the industry.

Passenger and cargo demand for air transport was up by approximately one per cent from capacity realised during the same months last year according to a news statement.

“This is significantly better than the 5.4 per cent decline recorded in September,” said the Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and chief executive in a statement.
About 2.2 billion people fly each year according to the association.

In Uganda, Mr Pierre Declerck the general manager, Brussels Airlines agreed that a “very slight” improvement has been experienced to date compared to September.

“But it is nothing good yet, you can still see that the downward in our books and not only for Brussels Airlines but for IATA,” Mr Declerck told Daily Monitor in an interview prior to the release of the new figures.

Using the numbers from the Bank Settlement Plan (BSP), a global organisation that receives, records and redistributes all the money airlines and travel agencies make on ticket sales across the world, Mr Declerck said Uganda’s BSP index had improved to minus eight from minus 10 in November.

In a seperatre interview, Ms Desire Barugahare the Air Uganda Marketing and Public Relations Executive said the domestic airline experienced a 10 per cent increase in passenger traffic between July and September, compared to traffic realised over the same period last year.

She attributed the growth to stronger brand growth and aggressive marketing campaigns.

Air Uganda’s performance amidst a downturn perhaps reflects the resilience of Uganda’s economy fast growing economy that has been kept afloat by regional trade and travel.

Continued marketing
Viewing the global trend in the tourism perspective, Mr Declerck said: “The slight improvement for us means that we should continue marketing and promoting Uganda as a good tourism destination.”

In a separate statement, British Airline’s regional commercial manager- Uganda, Faith Chaitvezi, said the airline had registered a steep rise in online bookings from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Ms Chaitvezi attributed the of 14 per cent rise so far registered to the fall in value of a pound making travel to London affordable.

“London has traditionally been seen as an expensive city but the weakening of a pound means that visiting London for a Christmas is now a more affordable option,” she said.

Optimism
Players in both the aviation and tourism industries are optimistic that 2010 will put them on an upward trend as the world recovers from a recession.

However, they reckon, that for tourism to perform well, the Uganda government must invest in marketing the country and repairing its unflattering past image.
Most airlines were hit by the global recession.