The number of international airline passengers flying in premium classes in October grew 5.6 percent year over year,

according to the International Air Transport Association. The metric has increased for 15 consecutive months. Premium traffic also increased 5.6 percent on North Atlantic routes—which according to IATA represent 22 percent of global premium traffic revenues—and 5.4 percent on flights within North America. "During recent months, there have been some signs of improvement in advanced economies and trade momentum in those regions—particularly in Europe and the United States," according to IATA. "This has helped support the stronger growth we are seeing in business-related premium travel over recent months. Continued increase in export orders suggests there could be a further pick-up in overall world trade in the months to come. But beyond the cyclical improvement in the global economy we are presently experiencing, recent developments show that a pause in globalization has caused a slowdown in trade growth, which has been persisting since early 2011. If the trend continues, it could limit the growth of business-related air travel in the future."