A Call for More Detailed Commercial Aviation Statistics in Media Reports

As passenger figures have been growing for several decades and only remarkable economic crises such as the one induced by Covid-19 have been able to slow down this fast growth, the way commercial aviation statistics have been reported by the media has not adapted to the variety of niches filled by airlines, depending on their business models, fleets, services, and routes. Media reports generally provide one key parameter (number of passengers) and, at times, other relevant parameters (number of flights, cargo tonnage) which alone do not provide exhaustive information on the current variability of commercial air traffic. Statistics showing, for instance, the busiest airlines in the world in terms of pure passenger figures are not funded on the core of commercial aviation statistics, such as PKF (passengers kilometers flown), seat configurations comprised of First/Business and comparable classes, etc. Another key factor is a number of vital special services provided by legacy carriers which are pretty much neglected by media reports. Via an excursus on the issue and tabled estimates on whether the PKF parameter could be used as a general factor of differentiation between different categories of airlines, this paper is aimed at showing how media reports should include a wider range of parameters and provide extra information on the actual complexity of modern-day air travel. Passenger special services (such as those aimed at people whose mobility is reduced) are among the key parameters analyzed for the purpose of this research.