Middle East air traffic growth looks optimistic
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Growth in demand for air travel looks positive for the Middle East carriers in September. 
According to the latest data from IATA, Middle East carriers experienced by far the strongest traffic growth, with demand up 13.3% year-on-year. This was down compared to the 17% growth recorded in August. September capacity rose 11.3% and load factor strengthened to 78.7%. On a similar note, African airlines’ traffic climbed 4.7% year-on-year, on a 3% rise in capacity. The load factor was 71.6%, the lowest of any region but a 1.2% point rise over last year.
“A two-speed recovery is emerging into a multi-speed reality,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO. “Carriers in China, Latin America and the Middle East are growing strongly. Europe’s airlines are experiencing profitless growth in a strategy to manage high fixed costs and taxes. In Africa the challenge is to turn growth opportunities into profits. But for North American airlines the focus is on tightly managing capacity in order to optimise profits in a slow to no-growth environment. Asia Pacific carriers outside of China are a mixed bag. Robust growth in China is being tempered by faltering markets in Japan and India.”
Hussein Dabbas, regional vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “Middle Eastern carriers continue to outperform the wider market, with growth expanding 1% between August and September.. Although profits will be lower this year compared to 2011, these trends look good for stronger profitability in 2013.”
