The African continent's airlines have reported their best performance since 2012, with passenger demand up 7,4%.

This is according to the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) full-year global passenger traffic results for 2016 – which also showed a particularly strong performance was reported for December with an 8,8% rise in demand outstripping 6,6% capacity growth.

IATA data says growth in the region is underpinned by strong demand on routes to/from the Middle East and Asia – as capacity exactly matched demand across the region, resulting in an average 67,7% load factor percentage of capacity taken up by revenue-generating passengers.

"Air travel was a good news story in 2016. Connectivity increased with the establishment of more than 700 new routes. And a $44 fall in average return fares helped to make air travel even more accessible. As a result, a record 3,7 billion passengers flew safely to their destination. Demand for air travel is still expanding," says Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director-General and CEO.

"The challenge for governments is to work with the industry to meet that demand with infrastructure that can accommodate the growth, regulation that facilitates growth and taxes that don’t choke growth.

If we can achieve that, there is plenty of potential for a safe, secure and sustainable aviation industry to create more jobs and increase prosperity." Overall, 2016 was another strong year for air travel demand, as capacity rose 6,2% compared to 2015, pushing the load factor up 0,1 percentage points to a record full-year average high of 80,5%. – Source: Traveller24 ∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙