African airlines emerged as the standout performer in global aviation during November 2025, recording an 11.2 percent year on year increase in international passenger demand, the strongest growth among all regions worldwide.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data on January 8 showing total global demand measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) rose 5.7 percent compared to November 2024 levels. African carriers nearly doubled this global growth rate while capacity increased 8.5 percent year on year.
The load factor for African airlines, representing the average percentage of available seats sold on each flight, reached 74.3 percent, marking a 1.8 percentage point improvement compared to November 2024. This represented the largest year on year load factor improvement of any region globally.
Willie Walsh, IATA director general, stated that November 2025 saw continued strong demand for air travel with year on year growth of 5.7 percent. Load factors reached a new record of 83.7 percent for the month as airlines continued satisfying growing passenger demand amid continuing capacity constraints stemming from challenges in the aerospace supply chain.
African airlines accounted for 2.2 percent of the total global passenger market. When examining total traffic including both domestic and international operations, Africa recorded 12.6 percent year on year growth with capacity up 9.1 percent, lifting the regional load factor to 75.1 percent.
Asia Pacific airlines achieved 9.3 percent year on year increase in international demand. Capacity increased 8.7 percent year on year and the load factor was 85.8 percent. Geopolitical tensions led to traffic between China and Japan slowing to single digit growth for the first time in 2025.
Middle Eastern carriers saw 9.6 percent year on year increase in demand while capacity increased 9.2 percent. The load factor was 81.4 percent, up 0.3 percentage points compared to November 2024.
European carriers had 6.8 percent year on year increase in demand with capacity rising 6.1 percent. The load factor was 85.6 percent, up 0.5 percentage points compared to November 2024.
Latin American airlines saw 4.4 percent year on year increase in demand as capacity climbed 4.7 percent. The load factor was 83.9 percent, down 0.2 percentage points compared to November 2024.
North American carriers saw 4.0 percent year on year increase in international demand. Capacity increased 4.2 percent year on year and the load factor was 81.0 percent, down 0.1 percentage point compared to November 2024. North America has seen 10 consecutive months of year on year decline in load factor when examining total traffic.
Global capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), increased 5.4 percent compared to November 2024. The global load factor of 83.7 percent represented a record high for November, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year.
International demand rose 7.7 percent compared to November 2024 while capacity was up 7.1 percent year on year. The international load factor was 84.0 percent, up 0.4 percentage points and also a November record high. International growth was slightly down in all regions except Africa compared to October performance.
Domestic demand increased 2.7 percent compared to November 2024 as capacity rose 2.7 percent year on year. The domestic load factor was 83.2 percent, unchanged compared to November 2024.
Brazil and India emerged as the fastest growing domestic markets. Domestic India traffic grew 7.7 percent while Brazil saw 8.3 percent increase. Domestic United States (US) traffic was the only major market to see a fall in demand, declining 1.8 percent, which IATA attributed perhaps to the government shutdown.
China posted 6.3 percent domestic growth with capacity up 5.2 percent and load factor reaching 82.9 percent. Japan saw 3.6 percent domestic demand growth with capacity up just 0.3 percent, pushing load factor to 87.1 percent, an increase of 2.8 percentage points.
Australia recorded 2.1 percent domestic demand growth but capacity increased 5.7 percent, causing load factor to drop 3.0 percentage points to 82.6 percent.
Walsh emphasized that the new year’s resolution for the manufacturing sector must be to increase production to meet the needs of airline customers. The backlog of more than 17,000 aircraft orders reached in 2025 must be reduced in 2026, he stated.
The capacity constraints reflect ongoing challenges in the aerospace supply chain affecting aircraft deliveries from manufacturers including Boeing and Airbus. Airlines are operating with higher load factors not because they chose to limit capacity growth but because they cannot obtain sufficient new aircraft to meet demand.
IATA represents approximately 360 airlines comprising over 80 percent of global air traffic. The statistics cover international and domestic scheduled passenger operations for IATA member and non member airlines.
Total passenger traffic market share by region in terms of RPK is Asia Pacific 33.5 percent, Europe 26.7 percent, North America 22.9 percent, Middle East 9.4 percent, Latin America and the Caribbean 5.3 percent, and Africa 2.2 percent.
