During November 2025 African airlines were the stand-out performer for passenger demand, with an 11,2% year-on-year increase in demand.
Capacity for the region’s carriers was up 8,5% year-on-year, and the load factor (the average percentage of available seats that were sold on each flight) was 74,3%.
This represents a 1,8 percentage point improvement compared to November 2024) and accounted for 2,2% of the total global passenger market.
By comparison, year-on-year the global market saw demand rise by 5,7%, with expanded capacity of 5,4% and an average load factor improvement of +0,3 percentage points to 83,7%.
“November 2025 saw continued strong demand for air travel with year-on-year growth of 5,7%,” says Willie Walsh, director-general of IATA.
“General Load factors reached a new record of 83.7% for the month as airlines continued to satisfy growing passenger demand amid continuing capacity constraints stemming from challenges in the aerospace supply chain.
“The new year’s resolution for the manufacturing sector must be to increase production to meet the needs of their airline customers. The backlog of more than 17 000 aircraft orders that we reached in 2025 must be reduced in 2026,” he adds.