International air passenger traffic up 4.7 pct yr-on-yr in September - IATA
Singapore (XFNews-ASIA) - International air passenger traffic for September grew 4.7 pct year-on-year, while cargo traffic grew 4.9 pct during the period, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.
The passenger load factor for the month was 76.9 pct, it said.
IATA noted that growth in passenger and cargo traffic has been slowing in recent months and is starting to weaken the strong airline revenue environment.
Nonetheless, it is confident that the industry will swing from an expected bottomline loss of 1.7 bln usd this year to profit next year.
"High load factors are among the most blatant examples of airline efficiency that is driving the industry towards a 1.9 bln usd profit in 2007, the first since 2000," IATA's director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement.