Middle East carriers saw an 11.5% rise in passenger demand in September compared to a year ago, which was the “largest increase” among various regions, IATA’s latest report shows.
The region’s capacity rose faster, however, up 13.8%, and load factor dropped 1.5 percentage points to 73.9%, the International Air Transport Association said yesterday.
Annual growth in international RPKs flown by Middle Eastern airlines climbed to 11.5% in September, and traffic continues to trend upwards strongly, IATA noted. But as has been the case for the past two years or so, increases in capacity have continued to outpace that of demand.
In fact, IATA said the load factors on the largest routes to and from the Middle East, those between Asia and Europe, fell by 3.5 and 4.5 percentage points respectively in August 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.
Globally, the demand as measured in revenue passenger kilometres, or RPKs, grew 7% compared to the same month last year. This was the strongest year-over-year increase in seven months. Capacity climbed 6.6% and load factor edged up 0.3 percentage points to 81.1%. Growth in domestic traffic slightly outpaced growth in international traffic.
IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said, “September’s growth in passenger demand was healthy. Importantly, this rebound from August weakness suggests that travel demand is showing its resilience in the aftermath of terror attacks.
We must, of course, be ever-alert to the ongoing terror threat. And overall the industry is still vulnerable to being buffeted by rising geopolitical tensions, protectionist political agendas, and weak economic fundamentals.
This will still be a good year for the airline industry’s performance, but our profitability will continue to be hard-won.”
International RPKs climbed 6.9% with airlines in all regions recording growth compared to 2015. Total capacity climbed 7.2%, causing load factor to slide 0.2 percentage points to 80.4%, IATA said.
Domestic demand climbed 7.2% in September compared to September 2015, which was up from the 4.1% year-on-year growth recorded in August. India and China continued to experience double-digit annual traffic increases while elsewhere, results were decidedly mixed.
All markets except Australia registered all-time highs in September load factors.
According to IATA October saw the global aviation industry taking a major step ahead to ensure that its growth is sustainable.  “The nations of the world came together through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to agree a plan to offset the environmental impact generated by future air traffic growth.
In taking this unprecedented step toward achieving long-term sustainability for an entire industrial sector, governments recognised the immense contribution aviation makes to economic development and global well-being.
In conjunction with our investments in more efficient technologies, infrastructure and operations, this will ensure that aviation can continue to be the business of freedom, connecting our world with safe, efficient, reliable and sustainable air transport,” de Juniac said.