Air travel stumbles as wars and fuel costs bite 

Global air passenger demand fell 1.7 per cent in June compared with a year earlier, as weaker domestic travel in China, the US and Japan combined with continued disruption across the Middle East. 

The latest International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures showed that airline capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, decreased by 1.3 per cent year-on-year, while the global passenger load factor slipped by 0.4 percentage points to 84.2 per cent. 

However, the Middle East continued to weigh heavily on the overall…