Airlines based in the Asian region carried 23.7 million international passengers in July, according to the latest data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).

This marks a 6.5% increase compared to the same month last year, and an 8.6% increase in terms of revenue passenger kilometres (RPK).

Seat capacity increased 6.2%, and airlines’ average load factors climbed 1.8 percentage points to 80.9%. Commenting on the results, Andrew Herdman, AAPA's director general, said; "Asian carriers have seen sustained growth in air travel demand on both regional and longhaul routes.

"Consumers are enjoying the benefits of lower oil prices, including access to a wide range of affordable airfares, which are helping t1o drive the sustained growth in travel demand.

Asian airlines are focused on meeting that growth in demand, whilst achieving further cost savings and operational efficiencies to deliver improved levels of profitability to support future investment," he added. For the first seven months of 2015, Asian carriers carried a combined total of 159.3m international passengers, 9.0% more than the same period last year.