Middle East airlines drive global August air traffic surge

Dubai - Results continue trend of strong demand for air travel.

Air passenger traffic of the Middle East carriers jumped 13.7 per cent in August with capacity nearly keeping pace to drive a global traffic surge of 7.1 per cent.
The International Air Transport Association, or Iata, said August results continue the trend of strong demand for air travel, despite some softening in global economic growth, particularly in emerging markets.
"August international passenger demand rose 7.1 per cent compared to the same month last year, with airlines in all regions recording growth, led by Middle East carriers. Total capacity climbed 5.8 per cent pushing load factor up 1.0 percentage point to 85.2 per cent," Iata said in a statement.
"Middle East carriers' August demand jumped 13.7 per cent over the same month in 2014. Major economies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have experienced slowdowns in non-oil sectors but the growth rates remained robust. Capacity nearly kept pace at13.5 per cent and load factor edged up 0.1 percentage points to 83.7 per cent," Iata said...Tony Tyler, Iata's director-general and CEO, said airlines are committed to meeting growing demand sustainably. "The record high load factor of 83.7 per cent is a great indicator of improved efficiency - a 17 percentage point increase over the industry's performance a decade ago. This is just one indicator of the aviation industry's determination to achieve carbon neutral growth from 2020."

On Wednesday, Iata was among the signatories at the Global Sustainable Aviation Summit of an open letter from the industry to governments. The industry called on governments to agree on the implementation of a simple, global offsetting scheme which will stabilise air transport carbon emissions, and to endorse a global CO2 standard for new aircraft. Asia-Pacific airlines' August traffic surged 7.7 per cent compared to the year-ago period. Capacity rose 5.8 per cent and load factor increased 1.5 percentage points to 82.5 per cent. While emerging Asia has experienced notable declines in trade activity this year as well as slower than expected growth in China, neither factor appears to be impacting international air travel on the region's carriers.
European carriers saw traffic increase by 5.7 per cent. Economic recovery in the Eurozone is supporting demand for international travel. Capacity climbed 4.1 per cent and load factor rose1.3 percentage points to 88.3 per cent, highest among the regions. North American airlines 'traffic rose 4.5 per cent year-over-year. Capacity climbed 3.7 per cent and load factor rose 0.6 percentage points to 87.2 per cent. Latin American airlines experienced a 6.7 per cent rise in traffic compared to Augusta year ago. African airlines' traffic rose 3.6 per cent, which was the slowest growth among the regions but the second consecutive month of growth.
Domestic travel demand rose 7.1 per cent in August compared to August2014, with double-digit growth occurring in India, China and Russia while both Brazil and Japan saw declines compared to the year-ago period. Domestic capacity was up 6.1 per cent, and load factor improved 0.8 percentage points to 83.8 per cet.
"Although the global economic outlook is decidedly mixed, demand for aviation connectivity remains strong. We are seeing the benefits of that connectivity play out at the Rugby World Cup taking place in England. Over 450,000 international fans are expected to attend the six-week pinnacle event of the sport. Aviation is helping to make this enormous infusion of spending possible," said Tyler.
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com