International Air Passenger Demand on the Rise

International passenger traffic demand rose 7.8 percent year-on-year according to new traffic results released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for March 2007. This is the largest year-on-year single month increase recorded in a year. Average international passenger load factors remained high at 76.4 percent.

Comparing the first three months of 2007 to the same period in the previous year passenger demand was up 7.0 percent with average load factors of 74.9 percent.

“The story for passenger traffic is based on strong economies driving the demand to travel for both business and leisure markets,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Carriers in the Middle East continued their 3-year trend of double-digit passenger demand growth in March with a year-on-year increase of 20.4 percent. This was driven by rapid route and capacity expansion and strong economic growth. Since 2001, Middle Eastern carriers have increased their overall share of global traffic from 5 percent to 8 percent.

All other regions also saw year-on-year increases for passenger traffic in March. African carriers reported an 11.9 percent increase boosted primarily by new and expanded routes to the Middle East and Asia.

Strong economies drove demand for carriers in Europe (8.2 percent), Asia (6.9 percent) and North America (5.0 percent). Latin American carriers, which continue to be affected by industry restructuring, reported the smallest increase at 0.5 percent.