GENEVA — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported global passenger traffic results for February showing demand growth of 5.4% compared to February 2013.

Although this represented a slowdown compared to the January traffic increase of 8.2%, cumulative traffic growth for the first two months of 2014 was 6.9%, which compares favourably with the 5.2% overall growth achieved in 2013.

February capacity rose 5.2% and load factor climbed 0.2 percentage points to 78.1%. All regions except Africa experienced positive traffic growth.

“People are flying. Strong demand is consistent with the pick-up in global economic growth, particularly in advanced economies,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.