Strip out the Middle East and global air travel was growing in August. Leave it in and demand fell 0.8% year-on-year, according to the International Air Transport Association, as Qazinform News Agency reported. Middle Eastern carriers did the damage: their international traffic dropped 14.2%.
Capacity edged up 0.3%, measured in available seat kilometres, so planes flew emptier. The passenger load factor slipped 0.9 percentage points to 85.1%.
“Global demand for air transport contracted by 0.8% compared to August 2025 as the recovery trajectory for carriers in the Middle East was interrupted,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist. Without those carriers, she noted, demand grew 0.6%, half July’s pace. IATA said global connectivity was generally weaker during the month.
International and domestic
International demand fell 0.9% against August 2025, but rose 1.3% when Middle Eastern airlines were excluded. Capacity was unchanged and the load factor dropped 0.8 points to 85.0%.
Domestic demand slipped 0.5% while capacity rose 0.7%, leaving the load factor at 85.3%, down 1.1 points. China was the bright spot, with domestic traffic up 5.8%. India fell 7.5%, the United States 2.9% and Japan 2.0%.
Regions
Passenger traffic grew in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and shrank in North America and the Middle East. On international routes, European carriers gained 2.1% and Latin American and African airlines each grew 6.7%. Asia-Pacific carriers slipped 0.1%, and North American carriers lost 1.7%.
Forward schedules for October point to cautious optimism, with available seats expected to grow 2.0%. Qazinform also noted that IATA recently sharply downgraded its financial outlook for the airline industry, citing disruption in the Middle East and soaring fuel prices.
