THUR JULY 31 2025-theGBJournal| African airlines saw a 0.3% year-on-year decrease in demand in June 2025, said International Air Transport Association (IATA) in latest data release.
The airline trade association of world’s airline reports that capacity was up 0.3% year-on-year. The load factor was 74.6% (-0.5 ppt compared to June 2024).
”The decline in African load factor may be due to increased competition from European and Middle Eastern carriers,” it adds.
The IATA reports shows that Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK of African airlines)expanded 0.8% YoY, making June the second consecutive month of slower growth.
Meanwhile, all regions except for the Middle East showed growth in June, though the YoY increases for Africa and Europe were the slowest for their respective regions in the first six months of 2025.
Global domestic traffic rose by 1.6% YoY in June, the second month of slower growth after the moderate 2.1% YoY increase in May.
Traffic gains between Africa and Asia were the highest at 11.2% YoY, albeit from a low base.
”This was the only route area that maintained double-digit growth from May,” IATA said.
The international RPK of African, Middle Eastern and North American carriers contracted in June, by 0.3%, 0.4% and 0.3% YoY, respectively.
The drop in growth rate from May was the steepest for Middle Eastern airlines, where YoY international RPK growth declined 6.6 percentage points. The military conflict and resulting closure of several Gulf States’ airspace had significantly impacted international traffic.
The number of flights scheduled worldwide expanded 2.6% YoY in June and 2.4% YoY for July.
There are currently 1.8% more flights scheduled for August, compared to the previous year. August is the fifth consecutive month when growth in scheduled flights has slowed.
”In June, demand for air travel grew by 2.6%. That’s a slower pace than we have seen in previous months and reflects disruptions around military conflict in the Middle East,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General
”With demand growth lagging the 3.4% capacity expansion, load factors dipped 0.6 percentage points from their all-time record-high levels.
At 84.5% globally, however, load factors are still very strong. And with a modest 1.8% capacity growth visible in August schedules, load factors over the Northern summer are unlikely to stray far from their recent historic highs,” Willie Walsh added.
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