The growth of international air travel from and to the Middle East outperformed global air travel in January both in number of passengers and the premium travel segment, an international civil aviation body said on Wednesday.

The global air travel performance in January grew by 3.7 percent year-on-year in line with the recent trend, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Longer-haul markets continued to outperform shorter-haul markets, said IATA, adding that the examples include the international travel on Europe-Middle East which grew by 7.9 percent and Middle East-Far East which grew by 8.4 percent.

The routes from Africa to the Middle East also recorded a growth of around 10 percent.

The aviation body said the reason behind the Middle East's strengths was that major economies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), continue to show a robust economic performance.

The international airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have expanded their capacities in recent years to position their airports.

Dubai's long-haul transfer hub has become the biggest one for global international flights in 2014, attracting 71 million passengers.