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Middle East Airlines Continue to Defy Global Economic Downturn: IATA
DUBAI — Airlines in the Middle East reported a significant rise in both passenger demand and air freight in July, standing out once again in an aviation industry struggling with shrinking business almost everywhere else, the International Air Transport Association said on Thursday.
“The Middle East region saw 13.2 per cent growth in passenger traffic in July, slightly better than the 12.9 per cent recorded in June,” said the association, known as IATA. “The growth is fuelled by increased capacity and greater market share in traffic between Europe and Asia.”
By contrast, Asia-Pacific carriers saw a 7.6 per cent fall in passenger demand compared to July 2008, while airlines in Europe and North America saw declines of 3.1 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, IATA said in a statement. Latin American carriers saw passenger demand shrink by 3.5 per cent, while African carriers saw a drop of 5.5 per cent.
In global air freight, the Middle East was the only region to show growth in demand compared to July 2008, it said. IATA is the main trade group for the world’s full-service airlines.
All regions saw an improvement in passenger demand compared to June. However, Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and Chief Executive officer, said that the road to recovery would be slow and volatile.
International scheduled traffic declined overall by 2.9 per cent from the same month last year, a slower decrease than the 7.2 per cent shrinkage seen in June. Freight demand, meanwhile, was down by 11.3 per cent last month. International passenger load factors, a measure of yield, stood at 80.3 per cent.
“Airlines need to make their money in the June-August peak travel season. Planes are full. Load factors are high. But revenues are way down. Conserving cash, effectively managing capacity and cutting costs will be the long-term theme for every business in the air transport value chain,” Bisignani said in the statement.
“The months ahead are marked by many uncertainties, including the price of oil.”
A worldwide decline of 11.3 per cent in cargo demand for July was also a relative improvement over the 16.5 per cent contraction recorded in June. However, the July freight load factor of 47.6 per cent was weaker than June’s 49 per cent load factor, IATA said.
“The freight numbers tell an interesting story,” Bisignani said. “The sector is being boosted as companies re-stock depleted inventories. Once inventories are at desired levels in relation to sales, improvements in demand will level off until business and consumer confidence returns. Given the large amount of debt in all sectors of the economy, instant relief is not in the forecast.”
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