Middle East airline traffic reach 2019 levels : IATA report

According to IATA’s latest report passenger traffic recovery has been strong for Middle East carriers with 31.4% YoY in the second quarter of 2023. The region’s airlines saw their RPKs reach within 0.9% of their Q2 2019 levels. The Middle East outperformed the global recovery in RPKs, which reached 93.7% (within 6.3%) of pre-covid levels for the quarter. Since most of the passenger traffic for the Middle East is international, total RPKs followed similar growth trends and recovery rates as international RPKs.  Ticket sales for the region have outperformed the global average and continue to trend upward, indicating sustained passenger demand. Local holiday shifts in the region caused some fluctuations but the overall trend remains positive. The Middle East also saw a solid recovery in origin-destination (O-D) passenger traffic in Q2 2023 compared to pre-covid periods. Passenger traffic growth generally varied among the countries in the region, with the strongest performances seen in the UAE, Qatar, and Jordan. The UAE led with an impressive 17.2% growth in O-D passenger traffic, compared to the same period in 2019. Other countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were within 2% and 5.6% of full recovery. While Iran’s O-D passenger traffic remained 34.4% below pre-covid levels (Chart 86), other countries also exhibited subdued growth in the second quarter compared to the previous period. This was primarily due to the timing of Ramadan in 2023 compared to 2019.