Dubai: More and more passengers are continuing to choose Middle East carriers for international travel, according to January figures from International Air Transport Association (IATA) released on Wednesday.
Middle East airlines recorded a 11.4 per cent increase in international passenger traffic growth in January when compared to the same a month a year go. It was the strongest growth figures out of all regions. Capacity among the carriers increased 13.3 per cent and load factor dipped 1.3 percentage points to 79.7 per cent.
The global growth average was 5.4 per cent, while global capacity increased 6 per cent and load factor dipped 0.5 percentage points to 78 per cent.
North American airlines saw 2.7 per cent more international passenger traffic in January than a year earlier, according to IATA, which was the weakest traffic growth of all regions except Africa. Capacity among North American airlines rose 3.8 per cent with load factor down 0.9 percentage points to 79.5 per cent. US airlines Delta, United and American Airlines are lobbying the US government to alter the country’s open skies agreement with Gulf states because of alleged state subsidies that they say help Gulf carriers eat at US carrier’s market share.
European carriers saw 5 per cent international passenger growth in January compared to a year earlier, the largest increase outside the Middle East.
On Tuesday, IATA reported that Middle East carriers grew their air freight market by 9.2 per cent in freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) in January compared to the same month a year ago. The global average was 3.2 per cent.
