Thursday, September 2, 2010

Middle East airlines posted the quickest growth once again in June, as the travel industry continues to recover from the global recession.

Regional carriers grew 18 per cent last month compared to the year before, according to the latest International Air Transport Associa-tion (IATA) report.

IATA said the Middle East’s fast growth was “based on a strong regional economy and the ability to attract long-haul traffic through the region’s hubs”.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO said that the recent orders for over 400 new planes at the UK’s Farnborough Air Show was a “clear indication of growing confidence” from carriers.

Emirates Airlines ordered 30 Boeing long-range 777 aircraft, worth a combined $9.1 billion, at the show just over a month after it snapped up a further 32 A380 superjumbos from Airbus at the Berlin Air Show, at a list price of $11.5 billion.
At Farnborough, the Dubai carrier also tied down a deal worth $4.8 billion for GP 7200 engines and services from Alliance to run the 32 Airbus planes.

Fellow Gulf carrier Qatar Airways was also shopping at the UK show, ordering three business jets from Canadian manufacturer Bombard-ier for $122 million.

“The industry continues to recover faster than expected, but with sharp regional differences,” Bisig-nani said.

“Europe is recovering at half the speed of Asia with passenger growth of 7.8 per cent.”

North American airlines grew 10.8 per cent from May, IATA said. Meanwhile, African carriers posted a 21.3 per cent increase in traffic in June, positively impacted by activities surrounding the FIFA World Cup.