The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released industry traffic results for the first 10 months of 2005 showing a weakening trend for both cargo and passenger traffic.
October passenger traffic grew 6.0% compared to the same month in the previous year. This is considerably slower than the 7.9% recorded for the January-October period and is the slowest single-month growth recorded since January 2004. October load factor was 74.8%. Middle Eastern carriers led October growth at 15.1%. North American carriers posted October growth of 5.5%, sharply down from the 9.1% recorded in year-on-year comparisons September.
Cargo traffic in October was nearly flat at 1.1%, while year-to-date growth for January-October recorded a 2.6% increase. This is well below the 13.4% growth recorded for 2004. Middle-Eastern carriers recorded the strongest October growth at 16.8%. Asian carriers saw October growth of 0.2% while North American and European carriers saw declines of 0.5% and 0.1% respectively.
