GENEVA — Global airline passenger traffic results for June show a modest deceleration in demand growth compared to the prior month, according to IATA.

Total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 4.7% over the year-ago period, which was below the 6.2% year-on-year increase recorded in May 2014. June capacity (available seat kilometres or ASKs) increased by 5.0%, causing load factor to slip 0.2 percentage points to 81.5%.

“June traffic growth at 4.7% is encouraging even though it is a slight weakening on May’s performance. Earlier signs of a softening in demand are dissipating. While that’s good news there are many risks in the political and economic environment that need careful monitoring,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

June international passenger demand rose 5.5% compared to the same month last year, with airlines in all regions except Africa recording growth and the strongest gains among Middle East carriers. Capacity climbed 5.7% and load factor dipped 0.2 percentage points to 81.4%.

North American airlines experienced a 3.1% rise in traffic compared to June a year ago. Capacity rose 5.9%, however, which caused load factor to fall 2.2 percentage points to 85.1%, which still was the highest among the regions. Recent data from the U.S. suggest that underlying growth trends in business activity are positive and the unemployment rate is showing improvement.