by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

On the other hand, the region was the only one to see a decline in capacity utilisation for the month as available seats rose 12.7 percent, pushing load factor down 1.5 percentage points to 72.5 percent.

Globally, total revenue passenger kilometres improved 7.5 percent, available seat kilometres increased 5.7 percent and load factor rose 1.4 percentage points to 80.5 percent.

“In most parts of the world we see strong demand for travel – exceeding the growth in capacity.

Load factors are averaging over 80 percent and consumers are the big winners with fares trending downwards,” said Tony Tyler, director general, IATA.