Dubai: Middle East airlines carried 10.3 per cent more passengers in October compared to the same month a year earlier, according to latest figures by International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The growth among the region’s carriers, the largest out of any region, reflects the strength of regional economies that supports international business travel, the global aviation body said in its monthly air passenger analysis released on Thursday.
For October, capacity in the Middle East market increased by 13.5 per cent, “causing load factor to fall 2.1 percentage points to 73.5 per cent.”
The global average for passenger volumes were up 5.7 per cent in October, compared to a year ago, and higher than the 5.2 per cent increase seen in September, as per IATA estimates. “Trends in air travel growth have remained positive, suggesting that economic weakness in some regions has yet to have an adverse impact on demand,” IATA stated.
Latin American airlines saw the second highest traffic increase of 6.5 per cent in October, after the Middle East airlines. Demand among European carriers, meanwhile, rose 5.8 per cent, followed by Asia Pacific carriers with an increase of 5.5 per cent and North Africa up 1.8 per cent. Africa was the only market that weakened with demand dipping 1.6 per cent in October.
