Middle Eastern airlines rule the skies

Dubai - Carriers maintain double-digit advantage in international passenger demand

Middle Eastern carriers continued to maintain a double-digit growth in international passenger demand for the second consecutive month in February 2016, according to the latest data released by the apex body of airlines.
Last year, Middle Eastern airlines ruled the sky by recording the strongest annual traffic growth and also increased the share of international traffic on massive expansion of Gulf carriers.
"Middle East carriers had an 11.3 per cent demand increase in February compared to a year ago. This was exceeded, however, by a 16.9 per cent rise in capacity that caused load factor to drop 3.7 percentage points to 73 per cent," the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on Thursday.
IATA said global demand for air travel rose 8.6 per cent in February, building on a 7.1 per cent gain in January, but the amount of seats available rose faster than that for the first time in months.
"In the first two months of 2016, demand for passenger connectivity is off to its strongest start in eight years. However, February was the first month since the middle of 2015 in which capacity growth exceeded demand, which caused the global load factor to decline. It is unclear whether this signals the start of a generalized downward trend in load factor, but it bears watching," said Tony Tyler, IATA's director general and CEO.
February international passenger demand rose 9.1 per cent compared to February 2015, which was an increase over the 7.3 per cent yearly increase recorded in January. Airlines in all regions recorded growth. Total capacity climbed 9.9 per cent, causing load factor to slip 0.6 per cent percentage points to 76.6 per cent.
African airlines posted the strongest demand growth among the regions with February traffic up 12.7 per cent compared to a year ago. The pick-up indicates that carriers here are regaining market share through efforts to rationalise networks and enhance revenue management systems, after several difficult years.
Asia-Pacific region ranked third after Middle East where airlines' February traffic rose 11.2 per cent compared to the year-ago period. Capacity increased 10.3 per cent and load factor climbed 0.7 percentage points to 78.3 per cent.
European carrier witnessed 7.7 per cent increase in demand. Latin American airlines recorded 10.4 per cent demand increase while North American airlines' traffic climbed 3.6 per cent.
"On March 22 we had a grim reminder that transportation-including aviation-remains a target for terrorism. The attacks in Brussels were an attack on humanity-a terrible tragedy-that was met with resilience. The subway is back in operation. And the airport is working hard to return to normal operations that will reconnect Europe's capital with the world. Aviation is a force for good. And we are once again proving that terrorists will never succeed in destroying the fundamental urge of people to travel, explore and learn about the world," said Tyler.
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com