Middle Eastern airlines registered an 8.7 per cent growth in passenger demand in February, backed by economies well placed to withstand the plunge in oil revenues, a report said.

While regionally-based carriers continued to gain market-share, capacity climbed 11.0 per cent, causing load factor to fall 1.6 percentage points to 77.2 per cent, added the Air Passenger Market Analysis February 2015 released by the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

African airlines’ traffic fell 2.0 per cent in February year-to-year, while available seat kilometres (ASKs) slipped 1.7 per cent, resulting in a 0.2 percentage point dip in load factor to 63.5 per cent, which was the lowest for any region.

The results most likely reflect adverse economic developments in parts of the continent, including Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, which relies heavily on oil revenues.

Globally, passenger traffic results for February showed a strengthening in demand growth compared to February 2014.

Total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 6.2 per cent, which was an improvement on the January year-over-year increase of 4.5 per cent. Monthly results were positively impacted by the Lunar New Year holiday which occurred in February this year, one month later than in 2014.

February capacity (ASKs) increased by 5.6 per cent, and load factor rose 0.5 percentage points to 78.5 per cent.

“Lunar New Year celebrations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, certainly contributed to the robust February performance, but it is also clear that solid demand for connectivity is offsetting economic weakness in some regions including the Eurozone,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.   

February international passenger demand rose 6.8 per cent compared to the same month last year, with airlines in all regions except Africa recording growth. Capacity climbed 5.7 per cent and load factor rose 0.7 percentage points to 77.4 per cent.

Asia-Pacific airlines’ February traffic surged 10.4 per cent compared to the year-ago period. Although the strong results reflect leisure traffic around the Lunar New Year, the underlying trend in volumes confirms robust expansion in air travel. Capacity rose 8.2 per cent and load factor climbed 1.6 percentage points to 78.2 per cent.

European carriers saw demand increase by 4.8 per cent in February versus February 2014, while North American airlines experienced a 3.5 per cent rise in traffic compared to February a year ago, which was above the 3.1 per cent expansion in 2014 overall.

Domestic travel demand rose 5.3 per cent in February compared to February 2014, with the strongest growth occurring in India and Brazil, followed by China, which benefitted from Lunar New Year-related travel. Total domestic capacity also was up 5.3 per cent, and load factor was unchanged at 80.4 per cent.

“The millions of people who travelled for Lunar New Year remind us of the vital role that aviation plays in connecting our world,” Tyler.

“On an average day some nine million people travel on 100,000 flights. Doing that safely is the industry’s top priority. Words cannot express the shock and sadness that we all feel over the Germanwings tragedy.

“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those onboard the aircraft. The best tribute that we can pay them is to make flying even safer. While the criminal investigation has come to some conclusions, a thorough air accident investigation is imperative to help guide the industry forward,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service