ME airlines post solid passenger growth

Manama : Middle Eastern carriers posted a 12.7 per cent passenger traffic increase in April, the only region to see a double-digit percentage increase in demand, according to the data released by The International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Capacity growth of 14.8pc outstripped this rise, which caused load factor to fall 1.4 percentage points to 75.6 pc.

Global passenger traffic data rose by 4.6pc – the slowest pace since January 2015. April capacity (increased by 4.9pc, and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 79.1pc.

The disruptive impact of the Brussels Airport attack weighed on the April figures. IATA estimates that, absent the impact of the attacks, demand growth would have been around 5pc.

“The disruptive impacts of the Brussels terror attacks will likely be short-lived. There are some longer-term clouds over the pace of demand growth. The stimulus from lower oil prices appears to be tapering off. And the global economic situation is subdued. Demand is still growing, but we may be shifting down a gear,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

Meanwhile, the cargo segment of Middle Eastern carriers saw demand expand by 7.7pc and capacity rise 11pc in April 2016 compared to the same period last year. 

Although carriers in the region continued to report the fastest growth in aggregate, the April growth rate was about half that recorded in April 2015. This reflects both a slowdown in network expansion by the region’s main carriers over the past six months and weak trading conditions.

“Despite topping the growth chart, demand conditions for Middle Eastern carriers have weakened. Annual growth in April and this year-to-date was just half the pace of that during the same periods in 2015. The strong upward trend in Middle Eastern FTKs that was the norm from the start of 2009 onwards has weakened markedly. This coincides with a slowdown in annual network expansion growth (airport pairs served) by the main carriers in the region since the second quarter of 2015, but is also indicative of the broader weak patch in the industry,” the report says.