Other community markets recorded combined require and capacity trends during the month.
- “African airlines saw a 6.7% year-on-year rise in request. Capacity was up 8.3% year-on-year. Excluding Middle Eastern carriers, yet, worldwide contact for increased 1.3%.
Domestic passenger require declined 0.5% year-on-year, although domestic capacity increased 0.7%, leaving the domestic passenger load element at 85.3%, down 1.1 percentage points.
- “Universal pursue for air transport contracted by 0.8% compared to August 2025 as the recovery trajectory for carriers in the Middle East was interrupted,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Leader Economist.
Thomsen said demand excluding Middle Eastern carriers grew 0.6% year-on-year in August, but at half the pace recorded in July.
- “Worldwide connectivity was generally weaker in August,” Thomsen said, noting that domestic China was between the fundamental exceptions.
Thomsen additionally said the coming months would demonstrate whether reduced purchasing power from increased energy prices would influence journey budgets and whether geopolitical instability would discourage go. The load element was 78.4% (-1.2 ppt compared to August 2025),”
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Latin American airlines recorded a 6.7% develop in passenger summon for, although capacity grew 6.4%, using their load aspect rising 0.2 percentage points to 84.8%.
European carriers saw passenger contact for rise 2.1%, during the time that capacity increased 2.8%, leaving their load element at 86.8%, down 0.6 percentage points.
Asia-Pacific airlines recorded a 0.1% decline in passenger refer to for and a 0.9% fall in capacity, whereas their load cause rose 0.7 percentage points to 85.6%.
North American airlines recorded a 1.7% decline in name for and a 1.1% decline in capacity, whereas Middle Eastern airlines recorded a 14.2% request decline and a 9.0% capacity drop.
Universal passenger promote contracts
International passenger require fell 0.8% year-on-year in August 2026, although overall capacity increased 0.3%, pushing the world passenger load cause down 0.9 percentage points to 85.1%.
Multinational passenger refer to for declined 0.9% year-on-year, whilst worldwide capacity was unchanged.
African airlines led worldwide passenger capacity growth within the district markets tracked by the World Air Transport Collaboration (IATA), using obtainable seat capacity increasing 8.3% year-on-year in August 2026.
The raise was reported by IATA in its August 2026 universal passenger vend facts, which showed that African airlines expanded capacity faster than carriers in other regions tracked during the month.
The growth came as universal passenger demand in Africa additionally increased, even even though the pace of require growth remained below the rate at which airlines added seats.
Africa leads capacity growth at 8.3%
African airlines recorded a 6.7% year-on-year lift in cross-border passenger refer to for in August, during the time that capacity rose 8.3% over the same period.
Their passenger load aspect stood at 78.4%, representing a 1.2 percentage-detail decline from August 2025. Forward schedules for October demonstrate 2.0% growth in prepared seats, according to IATA.
African airline contact for stays beneficial
African airlines have maintained constructive cross-border passenger demand growth all throughout 2026, during the time that the pace has varied across the year.
- Name for increased 11.7% year-on-year in January ahead of slowing to 4.8% in February, then surged 19.2% in March prior to moderating to 2.2% in April.
- Require accelerated to 8.9% in May and 6.7% in June, whereas July recorded 6.4% growth.
- Multinational capacity too expanded emphatically in July, rising 9.0% year-on-year, contributing to the district passenger load element falling to 74.1%.
- In August, capacity growth accelerated to 8.3%, whilst passenger refer to for increased 6.7%.
The August figures reveal that African airlines continued to expand worldwide capacity despite the varying pace of passenger name for growth recorded during the year.
Nigeria airline capacity surges 37%
The expansion in African airline capacity is moreover reflected in scheduled seat capacity across the continent, using Nigeria recording notably powerful growth in August 2026.
- Nigeria recorded a 37% year-on-year elevate in scheduled airline seat capacity to 1.22 million seats, the fastest growth amid Africa’s top aviation markets, according to OAG Scheduled Capacity Statistics for August 2026.
- Nigeria added on 330,700 scheduled seats compared including August 2025, although overall scheduled airline capacity across Africa increased 8.4% to 27.3 million seats.
- Multinational services accounted for 21.5 million seats, representing 79% of the continent’s complete scheduled capacity, whereas domestic services contributed 5.8 million seats, up 11% year-on-year.
- Nigeria’s domestic advertise too recorded resilient growth, together with scheduled capacity increasing 42.6% year-on-year to 907,600 seats.
Egypt remained Africa’s largest airline advertise alongside 3.2 million scheduled seats, followed by South Africa using 2.34 million and Morocco together with 2.21 million.
Ethiopian Airlines remained Africa’s largest carrier by scheduled seat capacity, alongside 2.19 million seats, up 10.9% year-on-year, whilst Murtala Muhammed Cross-border Airport, Lagos, recorded a 25.6% year-on-year continue in scheduled seat capacity in August.
Cairo Worldwide Airport remained the continent’s busiest airport including 1.85 million scheduled seats, followed by Addis Ababa together with 1.25 million and Johannesburg using 1.15 million.
Source: African airlines lead international passenger capacity growth at 8.3% in August
