Middle Eastern carriers posted an 8.1 per cent increase in demand in June compared to the same month last year, which was well up on the 0.6 per cent annual increase recorded in May.

The timing of Ramadan, which fell almost exclusively in May this year, likely contributed to the strongly contrasting outcomes, said the International Air Transport Association (Iata) in a new report.
 
Capacity rose 1.7 per cent and load factor jumped 4.5 percentage points to 76.6 per cent.

Overall, international passenger demand rose 5.4 per cent in June compared to the same month in 2018, which was an improvement from 4.6 per cent annual growth recorded in May. All regions recorded increases in growth, led by airlines in Africa. Capacity rose 3.4 per cent, and load factor climbed 1.6 percentage points to 83.8 per cent.

Demand for domestic travel climbed 4.4 per cent in June compared to June 2018, which was a slight slowdown from the 4.7 per cent annual growth recorded in May. Led by Russia, all of the key domestic markets tracked by Iata reported traffic increases except for Brazil (down 5.7 per cent) and Australia (down 1.2 per cent). June capacity rose 3.1 per cent, and load factor climbed by 1.1 percentage points to 85.5 per cent.

Global passenger traffic results for June 2019 showed that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose by 5 per cent compared to June 2018. This was up slightly from the 4.7 per cent year-over-year growth recorded in May. June capacity (available seat kilometres or ASKs) increased by 3.3 per cent, and load factor rose 1.4 percentage points to 84.4 per cent, which was a record for the month of June.

“June continued the trend of solid passenger demand growth while the record load factor shows that airlines are maximising efficiency. Amid continuing trade tensions between the US and China, and rising economic uncertainty in other regions, growth was not as strong as a year ago,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Iata’s director general and CEO. - TradeArabia News Service