Middle East carriers’ international traffic growth slowed to 4.9 per cent in March compared to a year ago, which was a considerable slowing from January and February year-over-year demand growth.

This is related more to developments seen last year, while any impacts from the laptop ban will be visible from April results onward. Overall, however, the region has seen the fastest year-on-year growth in international revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) so far this year, with robust growth on routes to and from Asia and Europe.

Capacity increased 9.4 per cent, and load factor dropped 3.1 percentage points to 73.1 per cent.

The region with the strongest growth in March was Latin America (up 9.7 per cent), followed by Asia-Pacific (up 9.1 per cent), Africa (up 6 per cent) and Europe (up 5.7 per cent). Nprth America posted the modest growth of 2.7 per cent in March.

Overall, March international passenger demand rose 6.4 per cent compared to March 2016, which was a slight deceleration compared to February, after adjusting for the leap year distortion in February. Airlines in all regions recorded growth, and witnessed total capacity climbing 6.1 per cent, and load factor improving 0.2 percentage points to 78.8 per cent.

Domestic demand rose 7.6 per cent in March. This was driven primarily by double-digit traffic increases in China, India and Russia, supported by strong single-digit growth in Japan. Domestic capacity climbed 6.1 per cent, and load factor lifted 1.2 percentage points to 83.2 per cent.

Brazil’s domestic market continues to recover and returned to positive year-over-year growth in March for the first time since July 2015 while Japan’s domestic traffic growth hit a three-year high in March, continuing the ongoing recovery since spring 2016. This has come alongside an increase in the number of domestic routes flown (albeit with lower average flight frequencies).

"The first quarter results are strong. But the last weeks have been challenging to the passenger business. The laptop ban—implemented with next to no notice, no dialogue and no coordination, is testing public confidence in how governments and industry work together to keep flying secure. So, even as rumors persist that the ban will be expanded to other airports and regions, we are calling on governments to work with the industry to find alternatives—to keep flying secure without such great inconvenience to our passengers," said Alexandre de Juniac, Iata’s Director General and CEO.

Global passenger traffic results for March 2017, released by The International Air Transport Association (Iata), showed that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs) rose 6.8 per cent, compared to the same month a year ago. Capacity grew 6.1 per cent and load factor climbed by half a percentage point to 80.4 per cent, which was a record for the month.

March demand growth represented a moderate slowdown relative to performance in February after adjusting for the distortion in the year-to-year comparisons owing to the extra day in February 2016. The imposition of the ban on large electronics in the cabin on certain routes to the US and UK occurred too late in March to have an effect on traffic figures.

"Strong traffic demand continued throughout the first quarter, supported by a combination of lower fares and a broad-based upturn in global economic conditions. The price of air travel has fallen by around 10 per cent in real terms over the past year and that has contributed to record load factors. We will have to wait another month to see the impact of the laptop ban on demand," said de Juniac. - TradeArabia News Service