A rise in “economic optimism” has helped fuel higher passenger demand for flights although Europe continues to lag behind the rest of the world.
IATA said that global passenger numbers rose by 3.7 per cent in February compared to the same month in 2012 with strong growth in emerging markets such as Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
“Since October, passenger demand has been growing at an annualised rate of 9 per cent - this is almost double the growth trend over the first 9 months of 2012,” said IATA in its monthly traffic report.
But European carriers only saw passenger growth of 0.8 per cent in February as the continent struggled with the ongoing eurozone crisis, while North American airlines recorded an international traffic rise of just 0.3 per cent during the month.
IATA CEO Tony Tyler added: “Demand for air travel continues to rise on economic optimism and improved business confidence. But that comes with a few caveats. Much of the growth is concentrated on emerging markets.
“Europe continues to be a laggard, and the handling of the banking crisis in Cyprus has reminded all of us that the deep problems in the eurozone economies still remain.”
Europe’s airlines have not seen any rise in international passenger numbers since October but have managed to increase load factors to 76.5 per cent due to a 2 per cent year-on-year drop in capacity in February.
Figures show that worldwide capacity only rose by around 1 per cent in February compared to the same month in 2012 with average load factor stood at 77.1 per cent.
“Airlines are carefully managing capacity expansion, which is keeping the load factor at a record high,” said Tyler. “This is helping the industry to remain profitable despite persistently high oil prices.”