Africa was the only region to see a decline in international passenger demand in November last year, with passenger traffic falling 2% year-on-year, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) reported on Monday.

In contrast, the capacity of African airlines climbed 2.6%, pushing load factor down three percentage points to 63.5% – the lowest for any region.

“Volatility in the air transport statistics, rather than the start of a downward trend, may have contributed to the lower number, as the demand environment is strong,” the association said in a statement.

Overall, global passenger traffic results for November showed a moderation in the pace of recent demand growth across all airlines, with total revenue passenger kilometers rising 4.1% year-on-year.

This was slower than the 6.5% year-on-year growth recorded in October.

In November, capacity expanded by 6.1%, which outpaced demand growth and led to a 1.4 percentage point slip in the load factor to 76.3%.

However, Iata held that demand drivers, such as consumer and business confidence, continued to improve, suggesting that growth could accelerate in the coming months.

“Demand growth hit a speed bump in November, but, with continued modest improvements in economic conditions, the outlook remains positive,” commented Iata director-general and CEO Tony Tyler.

INTERNATIONAL PASSENGER MARKETS

Overall, international passenger demand for the month was up 4.8% compared with the year-ago period, while capacity rose 6.3% year-on-year and load factor dipped one percentage point to 75.5%.

Asia-Pacific carriers recorded an increase in demand of 5.5% compared with November 2012, which was supported by the stronger performance of major economies, such as China and Japan.

“With capacity up 6.8% on the previous year, the load factor slipped 0.9 percentage points to 75.4%,” Iata noted.

Meanwhile, European carriers’ demand for international services rose 4.1% in November compared with the year-ago period, with capacity expanding quickly at 4.8%, leading to a 0.5 percentage point dip in the load factor to 77%.

Modest economic improvements and rising consumer and business confidence supported the growth in demand.

North American airlines saw demand rise 1.7% in November year-on-year, which was a slowdown on October’s growth of 3.6%.

Further, the continent’s capacity rose 4.7%, causing load factor to fall 2.2 percentage points to 77.5%.

“Recent economic indicators have shown a solid fourth quarter, despite the disruption of the US government shutdown in October,” Iata stated.

Middle East carriers had the strongest year-on-year demand growth, at 9.7%, with airlines in the region having benefitted from strong growth in business-related premium travel throughout the year, particularly to Africa and other developing markets.

Capacity rose 12.8% and load factor slipped two percentage points to 72.1%.

Latin American airlines experienced a 6.9% rise in demand in November – the second strongest growth recorded – as robust expansion in business-related travel was driven by the strong performances of economies such as Colombia, Peru and Chile.

Capacity rose 3.6% and load factor climbed 2.4 percentage points to 79.4%, the highest for any region.

DOMESTIC PASSENGER MARKETS

Global demand for domestic travel rose 3.1% in November 2013 compared with November 2012 – a significant deceleration on the October increase of 5.9%.

This was the result of a significant variation in the performance among markets. Total domestic capacity was up 5.6% and load factor dipped 1.9 percentage points to 77.7%.

US domestic traffic fell 1.2% year-on-year, which was most likely linked to the timing of the Thanksgiving holiday nearer the end of the month, which caused some traffic associated with the holiday to slip into December.

China’s domestic traffic jumped 9.3% compared with November 2012, the strongest performance for any market, remaining consistent with the country’s robust economic activity.

Japan saw a 3.3% rise in domestic traffic for November year-on-year, supported by sustained increases in business activity and improving employment rates.

Brazil’s domestic traffic rose 4.5%, the second consecutive month of solid performance after a difficult first three quarters of 2013.

Indian domestic traffic rose 3.4% in November compared with a year ago, after an 8.6% rise in October, signalling that conditions remained volatile.

Russia’s November domestic traffic climbed 9.2%, as demand for air travel was supported by a resilient labour market in line with government policy to maintain high employment and sustained income levels.

In contrast, Australian domestic traffic slipped 1%, owing to the economy remaining sluggish, with rising unemployment.