As we pass the halfway mark of 2011 its time to look back at the events that have affected the air charter market during the first half of the year. Demand started out strong, entering the year almost 25 points above 2010. In our major markets, things progressed as usual from there, with a normal late-January demand surge. In Europe this demand swell manifested as an increase in popularity for destinations in the Alps, as European charter travelers took to the slopes for their midwinter holidays. Meanwhile in the U.S., charter travelers headed back into the skies on business, bringing demand up on that side of the pond as well.
While the U.S. and Europe were engaging in business as usual, in North Africa events of another kind were beginning to develop. By the first week of February, the growing civil unrest in North Africa had upended demand statistics on the African continent. Demand for flights out of Egypt rose 100% in the first week of February and Cairo International Airport quickly became the most popular departure airport on the continent, followed by Alexandria International, and four other Egyptian airports. As winter began to give way to spring and unrest continued to course through North Africa, we watched an interesting trend develop in the affected areas. As with Tunisia and Egypt, Libya experienced an exceptional increase in demand during their first week of civil unrest in late February, followed by a quick bottoming out the week following. Meanwhile, with their protests over Egypt and Tunisia business began to pick up once more and demand for those areas slowly began returning to historical norms.
Other regions of the world were also affected by unprecedented events in the first half of the year. In late February a massive earthquake rocked Christchurch, New Zealand and less than a month later, in early March, Japan experienced an immense earthquake and followed by a tsunami that wrought havoc on the island of Honshu. This event had a powerful impact on regional demand in Asia and Oceania, as the charter industry stepped in to offset evacuation demand in the immediate aftermath of the quakes. This effect was fairly short-term however, lasting only for a few days after each earthquake.
In Europe and North America spring travel followed historically normal trends while demand remained well above 2010 figures. In late April, holiday travel rearranged the airport popularity charts again, and caused another surge in demand. This settled by late May, just in time for the Champions League and the Formula One Gran Prix in Monaco to take hold of the charts in Europe. With these events over, Demand continued to climb reaching it’s summer peak in the last week of June still a full 25 points above last year. This was quite a remarkable feat considering that last year demand was bolstered by the world cup of football in South Africa.
In spite of the unprecedented events that took place in a number of regions in the first half of the year, 2011 has shown more or less the same trends as previous years, but in a far stronger charter market. Demand has remained steadfastly around 25 points above last year regardless of the incredible surges that we experienced in 2010. Look for demand to trail off in August and then level out as we head into fall, but keep your eyes peeled for an amazing end of the year peak.
