Middle East airlines posted the strongest year-on-year passenger demand growth in the world for November, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday.
The region’s carriers reported growth at 9.7 percent for the month, ahead of airlines in Latin America which saw demand grow by 6.9 percent.
“Airlines in the region have benefited from strong growth in business-related premium travel throughout the year, particularly to Africa and other developing markets,” said IATA in a statement.
It added that capacity rose 12.8 percent and load factor slipped two percentage points to 72.1 percent in November.
Globally, IATA said total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 4.1 percent compared to November 2012. This was slower than the 6.5 percent year-on-year growth recorded in October.
In November capacity expanded by 6.1 percent which out-paced demand growth. This led to a 1.4 percent slip in the load factor to 76.3 percent.
Demand drivers such as consumer and business confidence, however, continued to improve, suggesting that growth may accelerate in the coming months, IATA said.
“Demand growth hit a speed bump in November. But with continued modest improvements in economic conditions the outlook remains positive,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
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