Middle East carriers see passenger growth in August

Middle Eastern carriers posted a 5.5% traffic increase in August, well below the five-year average pace of 11.1%.
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The Middle East-to-North America market in particular has been hit by a combination of factors, including the now lifted cabin ban on large portable electronic devices, as well as a wider impact from the proposed travel bans to the US. Traffic growth on the segment was already slowing in early-2017, in conjunction with an easing in the pace of growth of nonstop services flown by the largest Middle Eastern airlines. Capacity increased 5.1%, with load factor rising 0.3 percentage points to 81.4%.