Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the international aviation industry.

Hurricane Sandy’s “impact was felt globally” amongst the aviation industry, with lost revenues estimated at half a billion dollars, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported.
 
IATA’s global traffic results for October revealed a continued pattern of softening of passenger traffic growth and a considerable deterioration in freight demand.

Passenger demand increased 2.8 percent compared with October last year but was 0.5 percent down from September’s results.

October’s freight demand declined 3.5 percent compared to the same period 2011 and dropped 2.2 percent when compared to September 2012.

“Slowing world trade and weak business confidence are affecting demand for air travel, while Hurricane Sandy delivered a concentrated punch to US domestic and North Atlantic travel,” IATA director general and chief executive Tony Tyler said.

“Airlines are managing the softer passenger demand environment by limiting capacity growth to keep load factors high but the rapid decline in freight traffic is outrunning the industry’s ability to respond.”

Hurricane Sandy caused 17,000 flights cancellations to the five most affected airports - John F. Kennedy, Newark, LaGuardia, Washington-Dulles and Philadelphia.

At its peak the storm grounded 8-9 percent of global air capacity, equal to 1.6 billion available seat kilometres.

“The human toll and physical destruction of Hurricane Sandy remain foremost in our minds,” Mr Tyler said.

“At the same time, the disruption of thousands of flights demonstrated just how connected the aviation industry has made the world - direct flight cancellations reached airports as far apart as Singapore, Johannesburg and Santiago.