Passenger Demand Continues to Inch Upward

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Middle East passenger traffic results (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) for September 2019 showing a year-on-year increase of 1.8% in September, which is a slowdown from a 2.9% rise in August.

Capacity was up just 0.2%, with load factor climbing 1.2 percentage points to 75.2%. International traffic growth continues to be affected by a mix of structural challenges in some of the region’s large airlines, geopolitical risks and weaker business confidence in some countries.

Globally, demand climbed 3.8% compared to the same month last year, broadly unchanged from August’s performance. Capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 3.3%, and load factor climbed 0.4% percentage point to 81.9%, which was a record for any September.

Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO said: “September marked the eighth consecutive month of below average demand growth.

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“These are challenging days for the global air transport industry. Pressure is coming from many directions. In a matter of weeks, four airlines in Europe went bust. Trade tensions are high and world trade is declining.

“The IMF recently revised down its GDP growth forecasts for 2019 to 3.0%. If correct, this would be the weakest outcome since 2009, when the world was still struggling with the Global Financial Crisis.

“Given the environment of declining world trade activity and tariff wars, rising political and geopolitical tensions and a slowing global economy, it is difficult to see the trend reversing in the near term.”

Read More: Middle East Air Freight Volumes Remain Weak in September