Global travel demand falls 0.5% as Middle East drops 8% in September
Global air travel demand fell 0.5% in September, with the Middle East down 8.0%, North American carriers' international demand flat and load factor at 83.2%.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said total revenue passenger kilometres fell 0.5% year on year in September, a sign of weak growth in global travel activity.
Load factor reached 83.2%, down 0.3 percentage points, while Middle East demand fell 8.0% and the international demand of North American carriers was flat at 0.0%.
The report excluded the Middle East from the calculation, with total demand up 0.3% when it is excluded, and IATA attributed continued weakness to geopolitical uncertainty and fuel price volatility.
IATA expects seat capacity to remain above 2025 levels in October and November, and described growth as weak and highly unbalanced.
What do these terms mean?
Revenue passenger kilometres: A measure of air travel activity that multiplies the number of passengers by the distance flown, used to gauge demand.
Load factor: The percentage of seats occupied by passengers out of the total seats available on flights.
Seat capacity: The total number of seats airlines provide across their networks during a given period.
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