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Mideast air passenger traffic up 11.3 pct year-on-year in February: IATA report

Xinhua, April 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Middle East carriers posted an 11.3 percent increase in air passengers in February compared with the same month last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Thursday.

The monthly growth for the Middle East was the second highest, behind Africa's 12.7 percent surge. Asia came third at 11.2 percent.

Globally, February passenger numbers rose 9.1 percent over that of February 2015, the IATA said in a report.

The Mideast passenger increase in February came against a 16.9 percent rise in capacity, causing the load factor to drop 3.7 percentage points to reach 73 percent.

"Traffic growth in the Middle East has now lagged capacity growth for six consecutive months," said the IATA report.

Worldwide, airlines' total capacity rose 9.9 percent, bringing down the load factor by 0.6 percent percentage points, to 76.6 percent.

"In the first two months of 2016, demand for passenger connectivity is off to its strongest start in eight years," said IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

"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," he added.

Some attributed the surge in passenger traffic to lower airfares amid a drop in oil prices. Endit