The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that there was a 6.4% increase in passenger air traffic and a 19.6% increase in cargo air traffic worldwide in August this year.

The IATA said that the August 2010 data is partially distorted by the comparison to August 2009, by which time markets were already expanding rapidly in a post-recession rebound. When adjusted for seasonality, traffic volumes for passenger traffic fell by 1.0% and cargo by .8% compared to July.

“The rapid improvements in demand that we saw earlier this year are behind us. The slow down of demand in August is consistent with our forecast for a tougher end to 2010 as government stimulus monies run out without having generated significant improvements in employment. The bounce from re-stocking is over. We do not yet see the strong consumer confidence needed to sustain the expansion with spending,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO.

The IATA said that capacity increases in passenger markets are accelerating. Since December 2009, air travel volumes have expanded by 4.3% while capacity has risen by 6%. Passenger load factors remain high (81.6%), but when adjusted for seasonal fluctuation this amounts to a drop of 1.5 percentage points compared to the February 2010 peak.

The IATA said that freight capacity is matching demand trends which are stabilising. Since December 2009, the freight volume expansion of 9.2% has been matched by capacity expansion. After a rapid improvement throughout 2009, freight load factors have levelled off at 51.%.

Rise in passenger and cargo traffic

Global passenger traffic in August was 2% above pre-recession levels of early 2008. Asia-Pacific carriers recorded a demand increase of 6.2%. While this is still a comparatively strong performance, the region’s airlines carried a similar seasonally adjusted volume of traffic in August as they did in January indicating a levelling off of the strong gains recorded throughout 2009.

European carriers recorded a 5% growth in demand for August when compared to the previous year. Most of the growth that is supporting August’s 5% year-on-year expansion has come during 2010. Demand improvements are being supported by inbound traffic on the back of the weak Euro. Business travel has also been given a boost by a revival in exports.

North American carriers recorded a 5.3% improvement compared to the previous August. This is a similar pattern to Europe’s carriers with most of the demand improvement having materialised during 2010 and coinciding with a weakening of the US dollar enticing inbound leisure travel and stronger business travel in both directions.

Global international cargo traffic in August was 3% above the pre-recession levels of early 2008. During the first quarter, air freight grew at an annualised rate of 25%. The first two months of the third quarter recorded annualised growth of 12%. With the restocking phase of the inventory cycle now complete growth rates are shifting back towards trend growth in world trade of around 6%. Freight markets are still growing but at a significantly slower pace according to the IATA.