Middle East carriers recorded the strongest increase in international air travel in September, with a rise of 15.8 percent compared to a year ago, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Tuesday.
Airlines from the region continue to benefit from the strength of regional economies as well as expansion in export orders that support international business activity and business-related premium travel, IATA said in a statement.
The aviation authority said capacity rose 14.9 percent and load factor climbed 0.6 percent to 78 percent for the month.
Globally, IATA data showed demand growth of 5.3 percent (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) over September 2013.
This continues the positive growth trend for passenger demand even though the performance was slightly below the August year-over-year rise of 6.3 percent.
IATA said September capacity rose 5.1 percent and load factor rose 0.2 percent to 80.3 percent.
IATA said it anticipates that airlines will deliver an $18 billion net profit on revenues of $746 billion for a 2.4 percent net profit margin in 2014.
“Overall, demand for passenger travel is growing in line with expectations. We saw, however, some shifting of the sources of that growth in September, largely driven by economic factors. The strengthening of the US and Asian economies was offset by weakness in Europe and Latin America,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
“It’s an interesting time for the global air transport industry, highlighting the complex vulnerabilities of the business. The fall in the price of oil is a good example. It is good news for an industry that spends a third of its operating budget on fuel. The full impact of the price drop will only be realized over time because of a time lag built into jet fuel pricing. And it could even be an indicator of difficulties ahead if the fall is driven by declining demand for oil rather than rising supply capacity,” said Tyler.
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