Middle East Passenger Demand Sees Marginal Decline in February

Middle East Passenger Demand Sees Marginal Decline in February

Sees year-on-year decline of 0.8%

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced passenger traffic results for February 2019 with the Middle East showing a 0.8% traffic decline in February compared to a year ago, the only region to report a drop year-over-year.

Capacity rose 2.9% and load factor fell 2.7 percentage points to 72.6%.

Broadly speaking, passenger volumes of Middle East airlines have been moving sideways for the past year.

Globally, total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 5.3%, compared to February 2018.

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This was the slowest rate of growth in more than a year but still in line with long-term demand trends. Monthly capacity (available seat kilometers or ASKs) increased by 5.4%, and load factor slipped 0.1 percentage point to 80.6%, which is still high by historic standards.

Said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO: “After January’s strong performance, we settled down a bit in February, in line with concerns about the broader economic outlook.

“Continuing trade tensions between the US and China, and unresolved uncertainty over Brexit are also weighing on the outlook for travel.”

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