African Airlines Record Highest Passenger Traffic Growth – IATA

The Global passenger traffic results have  recorded 11.7 per cent growth for May 2017, showing African airlines leading all regions compared to the results in 2016.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) based in Geneva, made the results available to newsmen in a statement signed by its Director-General, Mr Alexandre de Juniac, in Lagos, Thursday.
According to him, African airlines had also recorded the highest passenger traffic growth in April with 17.2 per cent traffic increase compared to April 2016.
De Juniac said, “African airlines’ traffic rose to 11.7 per cent in May compared to a year ago, which was more than twice as fast as the 5.1 per cent rise in capacity.
“As a result, load factor jumped from 4.0 percentage points to 67.5 per cent. Demand is supported by recovery on the key Europe market.
“Conditions in the region’s two largest economies are diverging, with business confidence in Nigeria rising sharply over the past six months, while South Africa’s economy fell into recession in the first quarter.’’
According to him, European carriers saw demand climbed 7.5 per cent over May 2016, while Asia-Pacific Airlines saw their traffic rise to 10.5 per cent in May compared to the year-ago period. He said that, the Middle-East carriers had a 3.7 per cent rise in demand in May compared to a year ago.
This he said was close to an eight-year low, which was not unconnected to the ban on the carriage of large portable electronics devices (PEDs) in the cabin from 10 airports in the region to U.S.
“North American airlines’ traffic climbed 4.8 per cent in May, down from 10.3 per cent annual growth in April, but still a strong result for the region compared to the five-year average growth rate.
“Latin American airlines experienced a 9.3 per cent increase in traffic in May compared to the same month last year.
“Notwithstanding ongoing challenges, an improvement in the Brazilian economy is helping to support growth, particularly on intra-South American routes,’’ the IATA chief said.