Mideast air travel demand sees double-digit growth in April

Middle Eastern air carriers see a 12.7 percent traffic increase in April, the only region to see a double-digit percentage increase in demand, the global civil aviation body International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Monday.

Capacity growth in the Middle East reached 14.8 percent, which caused load factor to fall 1.4 percentage points to 75.6 percent. Nevertheless, the region was once again like in recent months outperforming all other parts of the world, said IATA.

The Middle Eastern civil aviation activity is of global significance, noted IATA, because for Middle Eastern carriers domestic travel represents just four percent of operations.

This stands in contrast to other regions such as Latin America where domestic travel accounts for 44 percent of operations, primarily owing to the large Brazilian market.

IATA said global passenger traffic data for April showed that demand (measured in total revenue passenger kilometers) rose by 4.6 percent, the slowest pace since January 2015.

April capacity (available seat kilometers) increased by 4.9 percent, and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 79.1 percent.

"The disruptive impact of the Brussels Airport attack weighed on the April figures," IATA explained.

It estimates that, absent the impact of the attacks, demand growth would have been around five percent.

On March 22, two suicide blasts hit the departures hall of Brussels International Airport and a subway carriage at the Maelbeek station, close to the European Union institutions, killing at least 31 people and injuring over 300 others.

The attack led to the closure of Brussels airport, a European civil aviation hub, for 12 days as the airport resumed operations on April 3.

"The disruptive impacts of the Brussels terror attacks will likely be short-lived," said Tony Tyler, IATA's Director General and CEO in an emailed statement. Endit