Global passenger demand slips in August as Middle East traffic falls sharply

Global passenger demand fell 0.8% year on year in August 2026, IATA figures show. Middle East carriers drove most of the decline.

Worldwide capacity rose 0.3% in available seat kilometres over the same month. The global load factor slipped 0.9 percentage points to 85.1%.

Middle Eastern airlines saw the largest regional fall: demand down 14.6%, capacity down 9.3%. Their load factor fell 4.9 percentage points to 78.9%. A trend that had been stabilising since the Iran war began in late February has now worsened, reversing that gradual improvement.

Traffic between the Middle East and Asia fell 11.7% year on year, steeper than the 8.6% drop in July.

Outside the Middle East, demand grew 0.6% year on year, about half the July pace. International demand slipped 0.9% against flat capacity. Domestic traffic declined 0.5% as capacity grew 0.7%.

Latin America and the Caribbean posted the strongest regional result, with demand up 5.3% on a 6.3% capacity increase. The regional load factor still fell 0.8 percentage points to 84%. On international routes, Latin American carriers saw demand rise 6.7% and capacity 6.4%.

African carriers recorded international demand growth of 6.7%, and European airlines posted a 2.1% increase in international revenue passenger kilometres. North American total demand contracted 2.2% against a 1% reduction in capacity.

Domestic travel also weakened in India, according to the figures, with the source data continuing beyond that point.