Global Air Travel Demand Slips 0.5 Percent as Middle East Sags
Measured in revenue passenger kilometers, traffic fell 0.5% against September 2025. Stripping out the Middle East, the industry body said, demand actually rose 0.3%.
Airlines trimmed capacity as well. Available seat kilometers slid 0.2% year-on-year, and the worldwide passenger load factor dropped 0.3 percentage points to 83.2%.
“Air traffic demand fell 0.5% in September, reflecting weaknesses in the Middle East and North America,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, the association’s senior vice president of sustainability and chief economist.
“Nevertheless, this was an improvement from August, with a welcome return to growth in most international markets,” Thomsen said.
“These patterns have more or less repeated themselves throughout much of the year, and we can expect this to continue amid geopolitical uncertainty and volatile fuel prices,” she added.
International routes
International passenger demand edged up 0.4% year-on-year, and jumped 1.7% when the Middle East is excluded. Capacity grew 0.5%, and the load factor reached 83.6%.
Latin American carriers led the field with an 8.2% surge in international demand. African airlines followed at 8%, European carriers at 1.8% and Asia-Pacific operators at 0.7%.
North American airlines posted flat international demand while cutting capacity 1.9%.
Middle Eastern carriers suffered the steepest decline, with international demand sinking 7.5% as capacity shrank 3.3%. The slump was driven by an 8.8% contraction on the Middle East-Asia corridor.
Domestic routes
Domestic demand fell 2.2% year-on-year. Capacity dropped 1.3%, and the load factor slipped to 82.5%.
India recorded the sharpest domestic decline, plunging 8.3%, followed by a 2.7% drop in the US. Weather disruptions pushed Japan’s domestic traffic down 0.8%.
Other markets bucked the trend, with domestic demand rising 4.5% in Australia, 3.1% in China and 2% in Brazil.
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