Mideast air passenger demand underperforms in 2017: report

DUBAI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Middle East carriers' traffic increased in 2017 by 6.6 percent and lagged behind global growth of 7.6 percent, said the global civil aviation authority International Air Transport Association (IATA) Thursday.

The Middle East region registered the slowest growth among all regions, and was the only region that saw a slowdown in annual growth compared to 2016, said the report. "The region's share of global traffic (9.5 percent) fell for the first time in 20 years."

Within the Middle East, the market segment of airlines to and from North America has experienced the hardest time due to factors including the temporary ban on large portable electronic devices (PED) in the aircraft cabin as well as the proposed U.S. travel bans on some countries in the region, added the civil aviation body.

The PED ban, announced on March 21, 2017 by the United States, included large-sized electronic devices such as laptops and tablet computers. These electronic PEDs had been banned for six months from March 21 on direct flights to the United States from 10 airports in eight countries, namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Morocco. The ban was lifted in July last year.

Capacity in the region climbed by 6.4 percent and load factor rose 0.1 percentage point to 74.7 percent, said IATA.

Asia-Pacific carriers posted the biggest annual demand growth, with an increase of 9.4 percent.

Regarding the outlook for the global civil aviation industry in 2018, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO said, "while the underlying economic outlook remains supportive in 2018, rising cost inputs, most notably fuel, suggest we are unlikely to see the same degree of demand stimulation from lower fares that occurred in the first part of 2017."

The price of oil (Brent) reached over 71 U.S. dollars per barrel (159 liters) at the end of January which marked a first since December 2014. Enditem