Overall global air-passenger traffic grew by 3.2 per cent in April, compared with a year ago, as Middle East airlines showed the biggest increase in demand, the global airline industry body said yesterday.
"We see strong growth among African, Asia-Pacific, Middle Eastern and Latin American airlines," the International Air Transport Association (Iata) chief Tony Tylersaid in Cape Town.
Middle Eastern airlines were the strongest performers, growing by 10.9 per cent, followed by Asia-Pacific at 4.7 per cent and Africa at 4.6 per cent. Latin America grew by 2.8 per cent.
The growth trend has accelerated in the past six months, consistent with a better business environment compared with the mid-months of last year, Iata said. Airlines in all regions enjoyed a better April this year than last year, with Middle Eastern carriers posting the strongest growth. Growth was more modest in Europe where demand increased by 2.2 per cent and in North America, where the market rose 0.6 per cent.
The seasonally adjusted rate for April was nearly 5 per cent, the airline industry body said.
Marginally ahead of demand, capacity was up 4.4 per cent from last April, pushing the load factor down 0.9 per cent to 78.1 per cent.
If adjusted for seasonality, this remained at near record highs of 80 per cent.
The international flight market was up 3 per cent in April from the year before, while capacity grew 4.3 per cent.
North America was the only region to contract, shrinking by 0.5 per cent.
"The impact of government spending cuts related to the federal budget sequestration are yet to be fully seen, but the initial impact on business confidence has been negative with a significant slip in the US Manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index in April," said Iata.
Africa was the second-best performing region with traffic rising by 4.7 per cent from the figure for April last year. Domestic demand was up 3.5 per cent, fuelled by China.
Cargo data from March showed that the Middle East and Africa airlines' traffic grew 10.5 per cent, even as the recovery in global freight rates that began towards the end of last year stalled, according to Iata.
* with agencies
