Tunis – The number of passengers carried by Tunisian airline Tunisair increased by 19.5% in August over the same month of last year, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported this Tuesday (12). Passenger traffic jumped from 368,205 passengers in August 2016 to 440,057 passengers last month, according to the Tunis-based news agency.
Regular flights carried 343,936 passengers, 10.5% more than the 311,120 carried in August of last year. In charter flights, the hike was even sharper, from 18,845 to 67,205 passengers, thanks to the recovery of tourist traffic. Tunisair also carried 10,748 pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia in August, according to TAP.
Occupancy rate in the airline’s flights increased by 6.5 percentage points last month to 79.3%.
Europeans remained the main clients of Tunisian airline, accounting for 77.4% of passengers in August’s regular flights – an increase of 9.4% over the same month of 2016. African countries accounted for 14.1% of the passenger traffic, up 13.3%.
Demand from the Middle East increased by 11.2% and accounted for 6.8% of the passenger traffic. Demand from North America also went up, where regular flights to Montreal, Canada, accounted for 1.7% of Tunisair’s passenger total, an increase of 49.5%.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani