Middle East airlines saw passenger demand growth of more than 18 percent in April, more than twice that of any region in the world.
According to latest data released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the region’s carriers continued to lead the world for growth last month.
The 18.6 percent growth was achieved amid a rise in capacity of 13.1 percent, pushing the load factor on planes up by 3.8 percent to above 80 percent.
IATA said in a statement that airlines in the Middle East continue to benefit from the strength of regional economies and solid growth in business-related premium travel.
Latin America carriers registered the second best growth in passenger demand during April of 8.2 percent.
Globally, IATA said total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 7.5 percent compared to April 2013, an improvement over March growth of 2.9 percent.
The year-on-year comparison is somewhat biased by the timing of the Easter holiday, which occurred in April, a month later than in 2013. April capacity increased 5.8 percent, propelling load factor up 1.2 percent to 79.4 percent.
“April’s demand growth was a pleasant surprise in the face of the moderating trend of recent months but it is not clear whether the acceleration in demand is sustainable in view of global economic trends including slower growth in China,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
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