● IATA: Africa March passenger traffic up 14.3% on March 2011.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its global traffic figures for the month of March 2012, with passenger traffic in Africa showing an increase of 14.3% on last year, whilst cargo traffic has only marginally grown by a minuscule 0.1%.

However it should be noted that comparisons with March last year are affected by events that depressed passenger demand in 2011, including the Arab Spring, which disrupted travel in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in February 2011 and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011 that impacted air travel across the Asia-Pacific region. IATA estimates that the year-on-year rise in air travel in March was about two percentage points higher than it would otherwise have been in the absence of these events.

"African airlines reported a 14.3% rise in traffic, of which an estimated 11 percentage points was attributed to traffic suppression in March 2011 owing to the Arab Spring. Capacity rose 10.7%, resulting in a load factor of 64.8%, which although an improvement year-on-year, was by far the lowest among the regions."

Read More Here [IATA]