International Air Transport Association reported that the global airline industry will face challenges in maintaining high load factors required to support profitable growth, and cautioned against “headwinds from volatile demand and rising fuel costs”.

IATA, stated that the Series of global events, including the political crisis in the Middle East, coupled with the awful March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, have been reported to decrease airlines' profits in the first four months of the year, though their impact is anticipated to ease in the next half of the year.

Giovanni Bisignani, the group's Director General and Chief Executive, also stated that “maintaining the high load factors needed to support profitable growth will be difficult given the ongoing challenge of matching capacity to volatile demand”.

However, the Swiss-headquartered association, which represents about 230 airlines, reported the increase of internationally scheduled air passenger traffic, to 16.5% from a year earlier in April and above the pre-financial crisis peak in early 2008 by 7%.

In April, airlines' seat capacity, also increased by 16.8%, above passenger growth and resulting in a marginal fall in passenger load factor to 76.7% from 76.8% the previous year.

Moreover, IATA attributed the rise in April to a reduced “base of comparison” last year, as air traffic dropped owing to volcanic ash, and forced airlines to suspend flights in Europe, where passenger demand was reported to have increased by 29.3% in April from a year earlier.