African airlines see traffic increase of up to 9.5%

Total Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) rose 4.6%, compared to the same month in 2015, and capacity increased by 5.5%, pushing the average load factor down to 78.7 per cent.

“African airlines’ traffic rose 9.5 per cent, continuing the trend of strong growth that is linked to the expansion of long-haul networks by the region’s carriers, particularly Ethiopian Airlines,” said Tony Tyler, IATA, director general.

“After a very strong start to the year, demand growth is slipping back toward more historic levels. A combination of factors are likely behind this more moderated pace of demand growth. These include continuing terrorist activity and the fragile state of the global economy. Neither bode well for travel demand. And the shocks of Istanbul and the economic fallout of the Brexit vote make it difficult to see an early uptick,” said IATA in its report.