Middle East growth continues as Honeywell warns of need to move on ATM improvements

IATA reported that load factors in the region, for the month, stood at 81.4%.

Menawhile African carriers posted a 6.6% increase in demand against a 4.9% increase in capacity.  The African region’s load factor stood at 73.1%.

As a whole, global passenger travel was up 5.9% over July 2010., but the IATA figures showed freight markets as stagnating with a 0.4% demand decline over the previous year’s level.

“Passenger travel bucked the gloomy economic outlook ,” said IATA’s director general, Tony Tyler. “This increase was likely based on the much more optimistic economic outlook that marked the beginning of the year. With business and consumer confidence now tanking, sluggishness in international trade, and high fuel prices, the expectation is for a weaker end to the year. We are already seeing this in the shrinking air freight markets, “ he said.

Pictured: Tony Tyler, CEO and director general of IATA (c) Bloomberg

International passenger markets, which grew by 7.3% compared with July 2010, remain stronger on average than domestic markets which showed weaker growth of 3.5% year over year. Compared to pre-recession levels of early 2008, international passenger traffic has expanded by 12%.

IATA said that had the industry continued to grow at the pre-recession pace of 8%, international markets would have been about 14% higher than today’s levels and a quarter higher than pre-recession level. This confirms, it said, that the global financial crisis has cost airlines about two full years of growth.

Some international aerospace service providers are expressing concern about the industry’s capability and systems to absorb the growth.

Paolo Carmassi, President Honeywell Aerospace for the region including Europe and MENA said today that   his company was “tackling head on” some of the key issues.

“Operational efficiency is key to meeting current and future air traffic demands more so than ever before, with fuel prices remaining volatile and question marks hanging over the state of the global economy,” Carmassi said.

  Honeywell is a key member of the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) which aims to reduce average flight time by between eight and 14 minutes, cut 300 to 500 kg of fuel and reduce CO2 emissions by at least 948 kg per flight by 2020.

“ATM technology that reduces congestion and improves efficiency by enabling more planes to fly optimised routes is available today. It is now crucial that the industry’s key stakeholders including Honeywell, SESAR and Europe’s airport authorities, airlines and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) work together to introduce this technology to the region in the most efficient and economically viable way possible,” Carmassi said.