Middle East airlines\' passenger traffic increases 18.6%

Middle Eastern carriers saw passenger traffic increase by 18.6 per cent in the first four months of this year over the same period in 2011, leading the global growth in passenger demand, according to latest statistics released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). In April the region\'s airlines recorded 16 per cent growth over the corresponding period a year earlier, the global aviation body said yesterday in a statement. \"Middle East airlines\' traffic growth has started to pick up pace again, recording a 16 per cent gain in passenger demand for April, after having softened in the second half of 2011,\" IATA said. \"Although this is a fall from the 20.9 per cent growth recorded in March, the March result was distorted by the impacts of the Arab Spring in 2011.\" It added that demand grew faster than the 12.7 per cent capacity expansion in April, while load factors remained high at 78.3 per cent. Globally, meanwhile, despite continuing econ-omic weakness in some parts of the world, demand for air travel continues to grow, according to IATA, as total passenger demand rose 6.1 per cent while freight demand was down 4.2 per cent down on April 2011. \"The growth in passenger markets is encouraging,\" Tony Tyler, IATA\'s director-general and chief executive, said in a statement. \"But it comes against an environment of continuing high oil prices and growing economic uncertainty. So translating the stronger demand into profits will be difficult.\" Air freight markets, however, slumped sharply in the first half of 2011 and bottomed out towards the end of the year, though April cargo levels stood at about two per cent higher than in November 2011, according to IATA.