The International Air Transport Association on Friday predicted that airlines operating in Nigeria and other African countries would continue to experience weak growth in international passengers’ traffic.
This was contained in IATA global passenger traffic results for August issued by its Director-General, Tony Tyler.
The report said: “Adverse economic developments in parts of the continent, including Nigeria, the largest economy, suggest that Africa will continue to experience weak growth at best.
“African airlines’ traffic rose to 3.6 per cent in August, year-to-year which was the slowest growth among the regions, but the second consecutive month of growth.
“Capacity increased to 2.9 per cent with the result that load factor improved 0.5 percentage points to 75.2 per cent.”
It said that apart from the African situation, there was a strong growth in air travel demand for both domestic and international traffic globally.
It noted that the total revenue passenger kilometres rose by 7.1 per cent compared to last year.
The report stated further: “August capacity (available seat kilometres) increased by 5.9 per cent and load factor rose 0.9 percentage points to a record 84.7 per cent.
“August results continue the trend of strong demand for air travel, in spite of some softening in global economic growth, particularly in emerging markets.”
According to it, Asia-Pacific airlines’ August traffic surged 7.7 per cent compared to the year-ago period, while capacity rose 5.8 per cent and load factor increased 1.5 percentage points to 82.5 per cent.
It said: “European carriers saw traffic increase by 5.7 per cent. Capacity climbed 4.1 per cent and load factor rose 1.3 percentage points to 88.3 per cent, highest among the regions.
“North American airlines’ traffic rose 4.5 per cent year-over-year. Capacity climbed 3.7 per cent and load factor rose 0.6 percentage points to 87.2 per cent.
“Middle East carriers’ August demand jumped 13.7 per cent over the same month in 2014.
“Capacity nearly kept pace at 13.5 per cent and load factor edged up 0.1 percentage points to 83.7 per cent.
“Latin American airlines experienced a 6.7 per cent rise in traffic compared to August a year ago.
“Capacity exceeded demand at 7.1 per cent and load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 82.0 per cent.”
NAN.