African airlines weakest in latest industry report

Cape Town - Global air travel rose 5.7% in June compared to a year ago, a slowdownon the strong May increase of 6.9%, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) announced on Thursday.
 
The deceleration is due to slower growth in Asia Pacific as well as some holiday impacts in the Middle East.

Iata said expectations remains broadly positive with the fall in oil prices compared to mid-2014 expected to sustain growth and demand for passenger travel in 2015.

International revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) growth for African carriers was weakest among all regions, with volumes down 2.0% in June year-on-year.

RPK is a measure of the volume of passengers carried by an airline.

The recent weakness appears to reflect adverse economic developments in parts of the continent, not least in itslargest economy, Nigeria, which is highly reliant on oil revenues.