Middle East International Air Travel Continues to Grow at Fastest Rate in the World

The airline industry in the Middle East is growing at a faster pace than in any other part of the world, according to the latest figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

For the month of September, international air travel grew 15.8 percent compared to the same month last year.

Airlines here continue to benefit from the strength of regional economies as well as expansion in export orders that support international business activity and business-related premium travel. Capacity rose 14.9 percent and load factor climbed 0.6 percentage points to 78 percent.

The economy of Dubai is expected to grow by five percent this year while Abu Dhabi is not far behind this rate, its economy growing by 4.9 percent last year. The emirates respectively account for a quarter and two thirds of the UAE economy.

The IATA reported that global passenger traffic results for September showed a demand growth of 5.3 percent (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) over September 2013.

This continues the positive growth trend for passenger demand even though the performance was slightly below the August year-over-year rise of 6.3 percent. September capacity rose 5.1 percent and load factor rose 0.2 percentage points to 80.3 percent.