KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5): Global airline passenger traffic results for October showed that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs) rose 7.2% year-on-year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In a statement on its website yesterday, IATA said capacity grew 6.2% and load factor climbed 0.8 percentage points to 80.8%, which was a record for the month.

It said October's performance was a strong bounce-back after the hurricane-related disruptions in September.

IATA said domestic and international travel growth largely was in balance.

IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said as expected, the recent severe weather in the Americas region had only a temporary impact on the healthy travel demand we have seen this year.

“We remain on course for another year of above-trend growth,"he said.