• Africa, Middle East accounts for 93%

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that USD 1.2 billion in airline funds are blocked from repatriation by governments as of the end of October 2025. A marginal improvement of USD 100 million has been made since last reported in April 2025. Out of total blocked funds reported, 93% are trapped in Africa and Middle East (AME).
IATA called on governments to lift all restrictions on currency repatriation and allow airlines to access their revenues in U.S. dollars from ticket sales, cargo sales and other activities, as guaranteed in bilateral air service agreements and treaty obligations. Restrictions include burdensome or inconsistent procedures to obtain repatriation approval, delays in obtaining approval, shortage or lack of foreign exchange or other limitations imposed by governments or central banks.
“Airlines need reliable access to their revenues in U.S. dollars to keep operations running, pay their bills, and maintain vital air connectivity. Governments have committed to unfettered repatriation of funds in bilateral agreements. With low margins and significant dollar denominated costs, airlines depend on governments fulfilling that commitment. It is also in the interest of governments to foster the economic catalyst that airlines provide by connecting their economies globally. That’s why we urge governments to facilitate the efficient repatriation of airline funds and prioritize this in foreign exchange allocations, even when currency is in short supply,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
Ten countries are responsible for 89% of blocked funds
Ten countries across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia account for 89% of the total blocked funds, amounting to USD 1.08 billion.
Country                                                         Amount USD Million
Algeria ———————————————307
XAF Zone* —————————————-179
Lebanon ——————————————-138
Mozambique ————————————–91
Angola ———————————————81
Eritrea ———————————————78
Zimbabwe —————————————–67
Ethiopia ——————————————-54
Pakistan ——————————————-54
Bangladesh —————————————-32
*XAF Zone (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon)

Country Highlights
For the first time, Algeria sits at the top of the list of blocked funds countries. Significant increases have been reported due to a new approval requirement by the Ministry of Trade, adding to the already burdensome documentation requirements. IATA urges the government of Algeria to remove unnecessary processes and requirements for airlines.
While blocked funds in XAF Zone have slightly decreased since last reported in April 2025 from USD 191 million, airlines continue to face repatriation challenges despite submission of required documentation. We call on the BEAC to streamline the internal three-step validation process and improve processing times to continue clearing the backlog.
AME region accounts for 93% of total blocked funds across 26 countries, at USD 1.12 billion as of end October 2025.
“Political and economic instability are key drivers of currency restrictions across Africa and the Middle East, resulting in large sums of blocked funds. We recognize that allocation of foreign exchange is a difficult policy decision, but the long-term benefits for the economy and jobs outweigh short-term financial relief,” added Walsh.

Transparency
To provide greater transparency on the issue of blocked funds, IATA launched a web page to track progress quarterly, provide background information, and highlight developments.

Credit: IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) updated its analysis of aerospace supply chain bottlenecks noting that aircraft availability remains one of the most significant constraints on industry growth in its just released global outlook.
While deliveries of new aircraft began to pick up in late 2025 and production is expected to accelerate in 2026, demand is forecast to outstrip the availability of aircraft and engines. The normalization of the structural mismatch between airline requirements and production capacity is unlikely before 2031-2034 due to irreversible losses on deliveries over the past five years and a record-high order backlog.
Notable points on the current situation include:
• Delivery shortfalls now total at least 5,300 aircraft.
• The order backlog has surpassed 17,000 aircraft, a number equal to almost 60% of the active fleet. Historically, this ratio was steady at around 30-40%. This backlog is equivalent to nearly 12 years of the current production capacity.
• The average fleet age has risen to 15.1 years (12.8 years for aircraft in the passenger fleet, 19.6 years for cargo aircraft, and 14.5 years for the wide-body fleet).
• Aircraft in storage (for all reasons) exceed 5,000 aircraft, one of the highest levels in history despite the severe shortage of new aircraft.
“Airlines are feeling the impact of the aerospace supply chain challenges across their business. Higher leasing costs, reduced scheduling flexibility, delayed sustainability gains and increased reliance on suboptimal aircraft types are the most obvious challenges. Airlines are missing opportunities to strengthen their top-line, improve their environmental performance and serve customers. Meanwhile travelers are seeing higher costs from the resulting tighter demand/supply conditions. No effort should be spared to accelerate solutions before the impact becomes even more acute,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
As production bottlenecks continue, new challenges and impacts are being revealed:
• Delivery delays are compounded by several factors, including:
o Airframe production is outpacing engine production (which is constrained due to issues with existing engines). This is resulting in newly completed airframes being parked until engines are available.
o Longer timelines for new aircraft certification (from 12-24 months to four or even five years) are delaying entry into production/service, particularly impacting long-haul fleet renewal.
o Tariffs on metals and electronics resulting from US-China trade tensions have worsened some supply bottlenecks and raised some maintenance costs.
o A shortage of skilled labor, especially in engine and component manufacturing, is constraining production ramp-up plans.
o The fragility of the aerospace supply chain network (often reliant on a limited number of suppliers for critical parts) can become an acute constraint amid economic uncertainty, changing tariff regimes and tight labor markets. As a result, even small disruptions can be difficult to resolve and balloon to significant production delays.
• Fuel efficiency improvements are slowing as the fleet ages. Historically, fuel efficiency improved by 2.0% per year, but this slowed to 0.3% in 2025 and is projected at 1.0% for 2026.
• The situation for the air cargo fleet risks evolving:
o Converted aircraft from passenger operations are in short supply as airlines keep them in use for passenger operations longer.
o New-build wide bodies face production delays.
o Older cargo aircraft which have been kept flying longer to compensate for slower fleet renewal will eventually reach hard limits on their useful life.
A recent study by IATA and Oliver Wymann estimated that the cost to the airline industry of supply chain bottlenecks will be more than USD 11 billion in 2025, driven by four main factors:
• Excess fuel costs (~USD 4.2 billion): Airlines are operating older, less fuel-efficient aircraft because new aircraft deliveries are delayed, leading to higher fuel costs.
• Additional maintenance costs (USD 3.1 billion): The global fleet is aging, and older aircraft require more frequent and expensive maintenance.
• Increased engine leasing costs (USD 2.6 billion): Airlines need to lease more engines since engines spend longer on the ground during maintenance. Aircraft lease rates have also risen by 20–30% since 2019.
• Surplus inventory holding costs (USD 1.4 billion): Airlines are stocking more spare parts to mitigate unpredictable supply chain disruptions, increasing inventory costs.
To help expedite solutions, the study pointed to several considerations:
• Open up aftermarket best practices by supporting Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) to be less dependent on OEM-driven commercial licensing models, as well as facilitating access to alternative sourcing for materials and services.
• Enhance supply chain visibility by creating clearer visibility across all supplier levels to spot risks early, reduce bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and use better data and tools to make the whole chain more resilient and reliable.
• Use data more extensively in leveraging predictive maintenance insights, pooling spare parts, and creating shared maintenance data platforms to optimize inventory and reduce downtime.
• Expand repair and parts capacity to accelerate repair approvals, support alternative parts and Used Serviceable Material (USM) solutions, and adopt advanced manufacturing to ease bottlenecks.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for October 2025 global passenger demand with the following highlights:

• Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), was up 6.6% compared to October 2024. Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers (ASK), was up 5.8% year-on-year. The October load factor was 84.6% (+0.7 ppt compared to October 2024).
• International demand rose 8.5% compared to October 2024. Capacity was up 7.1% year-on-year, and the load factor was 84.6% (+1.1 ppt compared to October 2024).
• Domestic demand increased 3.4% compared to October 2024. Capacity was up 3.6% year-on-year. The load factor was 84.6% (-0.1 ppt compared to October 2024).

“October was a strong month for air travel with demand up 6.6% on the previous year. Of particular note is the 4.5% international traffic growth for carriers based in North America which comes after several months of basically flat performance. The trends for the rest of the year look encouraging: scheduled seat capacity in November is set to expand 3.6% and in December by 4.7%. This points to strong demand for holiday travel and businesses looking to complete deals by the end of the year. Considering the uncertainty in the economic outlook for 2026, the resilience of demand for air travel, with the jobs and growth it brings, is a bright spot that governments should nurture with care,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

Regional Breakdown – International Passenger Markets 

International RPK growth climbed to 8.5% in October year-on-year, with double-digit growth in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. All regions except the Americas saw load factors improve.

Asia-Pacific airlines achieved a 10.9% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity increased 9.1% year-on-year, and the load factor was 84.4% (+1.4 ppt compared to October 2024). International traffic within Asia had a stellar performance, with traffic to/from China, Japan, and Vietnam experiencing particularly robust expansions, each exceeding 10% growth year-on-year.

European carriers had a 7.4% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity increased 6.0% year-on-year, and the load factor was 86.5% (+1.2 ppt compared to October 2024).

North American carriers saw a 4.5% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity increased 4.7% year-on-year, and the load factor was 84.2% (-0.1 ppt compared to October 2024). The trans-Atlantic corridor expanded by 3.8% year-on-year in October, a modest improvement over September’s 3.3% increase.

Middle Eastern carriers saw a 10.7% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity increased 8.1% year-on-year, and the load factor was 82.5% (+2.0 ppt compared to October 2024). The Middle East’s strong growth is partly due to its low base a year ago, when geopolitical tensions disrupted traffic.

Latin American airlines saw a 7.2% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity climbed 8.2% year-on-year. The load factor was 84.6% (-0.8 ppt compared to October 2024).

African airlines saw a 7.3% year-on-year increase in demand. Capacity was up 5.3% year-on-year. The load factor was 74.1% (+1.4 ppt compared to October 2024).

Domestic Passenger Markets 

Domestic RPK rose 3.4% over October 2024 and load factor fell by 0.1 ppt to 84.6% on the back of a 3.6% capacity expansion. The US domestic market returned to modest growth after two months of contraction. Brazil’s domestic growth of 12.4% was the standout performance.

Read more on: https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/publications/economic-reports/air-passenger-market-analysis-october-2025/