Middle East carriers had a 9.8% year-on-year increase in passenger demand in November 2015, IATA has said in a report. 
Capacity rose slightly faster at 11.5% causing load factor to dip 1 percentage point to 69.4%. Business conditions across the non-oil producing private sectors of the UAE and Saudi Arabia appear to be strengthening, and this should help sustain solid expansion in air passenger demand for local carriers, IATA said in its latest market analysis.
Global air travel was 5.9% higher in November compared to a year ago, IATA said. This is a weaker result than the October figure of 7.1%, but is still a very healthy rate of growth. 
In fact, the November result is above the 10-year average growth rate of 5.6%. The slowdown compared to October is due to factors likely to have a temporary affect. 
The growth trend remains robust, despite some softening in global economic growth. The reason is that air travel has been boosted by a significant fall in the real cost for passengers. For the first 10 months of 2015, there was a 5% fall in average fares in currency adjusted terms. 
IATA’s air travel demand study (assuming an average elasticity of demand of 0.6) estimates that the fall in fares has supported a rise in air travel of about 3% points, offsetting some of the weakness in confidence. 
 International air travel growth was “strong” in several regions, with the exception of Europe where strikes at Lufthansa and the shutdown of Transaero in Russia negatively impacted international traffic growth for the region and the industry as a whole. 
Domestic markets showed considerable variation in performance again in November, IATA said.
India continued to record very strong growth, up 25.1%, largely reflecting notable increases in service frequencies as well as ongoing economic strength. By contrast, air travel in Brazil fell 7.9%, with the recession worsening at the end of 2015. 
“Consumers continue to benefit from lower fares, which are spurring demand. The economy benefits from the stimulus to consumer spending. And airlines are starting to achieve minimum acceptable profit levels. It’s good news all around, but as we open 2016, economic risks are mounting,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.