The number of passengers travelling in airline premium seats in international markets increased by 3.8% year-on-year during April, as opposed to 1.9% year-on-year growth in March, indicating a stabilising demand environment, the International Air Transport Association’s (Iata’s) Premium Traffic Monitor has shown.

The association explained that towards the end of 2013, accelerated growth in premium travel had been supported by positive developments in the business environment, including solid increases in world trade and business confidence.

Improvements in the eurozone and US economies had been the key drivers of the pick-up in global business conditions, with momentum in advanced economies having helped negate some of the slowdown in emerging market growth seen over recent months.

The association also pointed out that the latest data showed that the gap between business activity in emerging and advanced economies had widened further, with advanced economies continuing to see stronger improvements than emerging markets.

Meanwhile, route-level results indicated a pick-up in the Far East market, reflected in a 7.2% year-on-year increase in April, compared with a 1.6% increase in March.

Markets connected to the Middle East also performed strongly in April, which was largely in line with performance this year, which had, to date, been robust.

“Economies in the Middle East, particularly in Gulf nations, are recording strong growth in non-oil producing sectors and near record high levels of business activity,” Iata said, adding that this supported growth in travel on routes such as the Far East to the Middle East, which increased by 11.5%, Europe to the Middle East, up 8.6%, and Africa to the Middle East, which was up by 12.3%.

“The outlook for premium travel markets is broadly positive. Global business confidence continues to signal economic growth, and May data suggests that conditions could be picking up after a slowdown in the first quarter,” the association pointed out.

In particular, improvements in advanced economies would help sustain growth in premium travel, easing downward pressure from emerging markets like China, it added.