The demand for global air travel rose 5.9 per cent in April, but the picture is mixed going into what is traditionally the strongest part of the year for airlines in the northern hemisphere, a leading industry body said on Thursday.

While low oil prices are helping to keep prices down, the strong U.S. dollar may hurt demand in some places, the International Air Transport Association said in its regular monthly passenger traffic update on Thursday.

"And it remains to be seen how long robust travel demand can stand up in the face of a trio of bad economic news: unexpectedly poor first quarter performance in the US, continuing weakness in the Eurozone and slowing regional trade in Asia Pacific," IATA Director General Tony Tyler said in a statement.

Capacity rose 6.1 per cent and load factors fell 0.1 percentage points to 79.4 percent in April, IATA said.

IATA earlier gave monthly figures for air freight demand, showing momentum was slowing.

The domestic demand grew by 7.2 per cent, outpacing international demand which grew by 5.2 per cent compared to April 2014.

The Middle East carriers’ demand climbed 8.2 per cent in April but this was exceeded by a 13.3 per cent jump in capacity with the result that load factor dropped 3.6 percentage points to 77.2 per cent, said IATA in its statement.  

The economies in the region are reasonably well positioned to withstand the plunge in oil revenues and regionally-based carriers continue to gain market-share, it added.

“Demand for connectivity remains strong. That’s positive news. But the performance of the industry is multi-tiered. Middle East and Asia-Pacific based carriers led with growth well above the 5.9 per cent average, while carriers in Europe and the Americas were below it. And African airlines reported a contraction compared to the previous year,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
     
According to him, the international passenger demand in April rose 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year. "Airlines in all regions except Africa recorded growth led by the Asia-Pacific and Middle East. Capacity climbed 5.9 per cent and load factor dipped 0.5 percentage points to 78.6 per cent," he noted.

Asia-Pacific airlines’ April traffic jumped nine per cent compared to the year-ago period. Capacity rose six per cent and load factor surged 2.2 percentage points to 78.3 per cent. To date the sharp reversal in regional trade activity after strong gains in late 2014 has not had an adverse impact on business-related international air travel.

European carriers experienced a 3.7 per cent demand increase in April versus April 2014. Capacity rose 4.7 per cent and load factor declined 0.8 percentage points to 80.7 per cent, still the highest among the regions for the month.

North American airlines had just a 0.7 per cent rise in traffic compared to April a year ago. US economic growth turned negative in the first quarter of 2015 while the stronger dollar is likely hampering inbound leisure travel. Capacity rose 4.1 per cent and load factor fell 2.6 percentage points to 78.1 per cent.-Reuters and TradeArabiaNews Service