Statistics released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the month of July clearly reflect an ongoing recovery in the air transport market. But factors such as fragile consumer confidence and the end of the restocking cycle stand to slow the pace, both in the passenger and cargo sectors, according to IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani.
Compared with the same month last year, international passenger demand this past July increased 9.2 percent while international scheduled freight traffic showed a 22.7-percent improvement. Although the year-on-year comparisons for July appeared less impressive than the June growth data, which showed 11.6 percent and 26.6 percent increases for passenger and cargo traffic, respectively, IATA attributed the apparent slowdown completely to the fact that by July 2009 traffic had already begun to recover. In fact, after adjusting for seasonality, the improvement in demand for July proved faster than for June.
