THUR APRIL 30 2026-theGBJournal| The International Air Transport Association (IATA) passenger market analysis published Wednesday shows that Passenger traffic of African airlines increased by 20.6% YoY, placing the region way above the industry average of 2.1%.
”The region has consistently exceeded the global average growth since August 2024,” IATA notes.
The PLF of African carriers increased by 6.5 percentage points YoY to 76.2%. This was the largest increase in PLF across regions, and also a record for the region for the month of March.
In terms of international traffic, African airlines delivered the strongest performance among all regions, with passenger volumes rising by 19.2% YoY. As capacity increased by only 4.2% YoY, the PLF improved sharply, rising by almost 10 percentage points YoY to 77.7%.
Globally, passenger traffic grew by 2.1% YoY in March, a sharp slowdown from the 6.1% increase in February and the weakest post‑pandemic growth to date.
IATA said the moderation largely reflected disruptions to airline operations arising from the Middle East conflict.
Similarly, Industry‑wide RPKs totaled 754 billion for the month, and on a seasonally adjusted basis, global passenger traffic was only 1.3% higher than in March 2025 and declined by 4.7% compared with February 2026.
Industry‑wide capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASKs), also fell by 1.7% YoY in March. With demand still expanding, the industry PLF rose by 3.1 percentage points to 83.6%, marking the highest March PLF on record.
Domestic growth improved while Middle East conflict hits international traffic.
International passenger traffic declined marginally by 0.6% YoY in March, compared with growth of 6.2% in February. Capacity on international routes fell by 6.2% YoY.
With capacity contracting more than demand, the international PLF rose by 4.7 percentage points to 84.1%, marking the highest March PLF on record for the international segment.
By contrast, domestic passenger traffic grew by 6.5% YoY in March, slightly faster than the 6.1% increase in February.
Domestic capacity rose at a more moderate pace of 5.6% YoY, pushing the domestic PLF up by 0.7 percentage points to 83.0%. With international traffic contracting, the domestic segment was the sole contributor to global passenger traffic growth in March.
“Demand for air travel continued to grow in March despite disruptions in the Middle East.
The nearly 61% decline in international traffic by carriers in the Middle East did, however, restrain global growth to 2.1%. Outside of the Middle East demand grew by 8%,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
“Everybody’s watching what’s happening with jet fuel—both supply and pricing. On the supply side, over the next months we could see shortages in parts of the world with high dependence on supplies from the Gulf, especially Asia and Europe.
And the extraordinarily high cost of jet fuel is increasingly being reflected in ticket prices. While this has not impacted March traffic or forward bookings to date, it remains to be seen at what point high prices could start to shift passenger behavior.
So far, the summer is shaping up to be a normally busy time for travel. That’s positive news, but airline resilience is being tested and stabilizing the supply and price of fuel is crucial.
In the meantime, it’s important for regulators to be prepared to grant airlines some flexibility on slots considering the extraordinary circumstances of airspace capacity restrictions and potential fuel rationing,” said Walsh.
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