Comments Angela Gittens, Director General ACI, “We are encouraged to see that the declining traffic trend seen in the first quarter appears to be easing, with Middle East and Africa regions registering positive results for the month, and Asia Pacific, Europe and North America showing more modest declines than in the early part of the year. While these results are heartening, we need to put them into perspective and consider that Easter fell in April this year distorting results upwards, particularly international traffic.”

Middle East led with a 9.5 percent increase and all cities reporting positive results. In northern Africa, popular tourist destinations Agadir, Alexandria, Algiers, Casablanca and Cairo report good growth as do some of the major international hubs in Asia Pacific (Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila). In Europe, Athens, Geneva, London Heathrow and Milan Malpensa reported increases in overall results, thanks to the contribution of international traffic growth. In North America, of the major airports only the holiday destinations in Florida saw an increase in international traffic, whereas Atlanta and Dallas Fort Worth remained flat, and traffic at Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Jose, Toronto and Vancouver decreased. In Latin America, although Mexico City was down by 3.8 percent, other destinations reported increases in international traffic including Buenos Aires, Cancun, Lima, Montego Bay, Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro. The effects of the H1N1 virus on April results are seen as minor since the outbreak only occurred at the end of the month. (Regional passenger results in Table 2)

Gittens adds, “We can expect May results to be more sobering once again when compared to robust growth in May 2008 and without the boost of holiday factors, and there will certainly be a negative impact of H1N1 in Latin America/ Caribbean and North America. If we look at the long term trends we may be near a turnaround point but it is too early to call a recovery.”

Freight traffic is still severely impacted by the world economic depression, with international freight down by 23 percent and domestic traffic down by 9.5 percent. Worldwide traffic fell by 18.4 percent for April, as compared to 19.4 percent for the first four months of 2009. (Regional freight results in Table 3) Gittens comments, “Freight remains on a plateau waiting to confirm a rebound in international trade. Volumes in maritime trade have picked up briskly recently indicating that global trade is on the rise again. But demand is not yet strong enough that goods have to be shipped fast by air and large inventories are still being depleted weighing on order volumes.”

In general, domestic freight traffic fared better than international, which was heavily impacted by poor performance in the two largest international markets of Asia Pacific (-22%) and Europe (-25%). The Middle East was the least impacted region, with international freight down by just 1.4 percent (There is insufficient data to comment on domestic freight results in this region). By contrast, in the Asia Pacific region, domestic freight shows promising signs, with results equal to those of April 2008, whereas international results across Asia Pacific were down by a stark 22 percent. Beijing is illustrative of the domestic - international difference, with international freight down by 9 percent and domestic up by 11 percent, yielding modest 1.7 percent overall increase. Major freight hubs Bangkok, Hong Kong, Incheon, Shanghai, and Singapore reported double digit international traffic slumps. In Europe, Amsterdam, Frankfort and London Heathrow also show double digits declines on international traffic. The largest freight airport worldwide, Memphis, had a 5 percent decrease in domestic freight traffic.

Table 1: Summary Worldwide Traffic Results, APRIL 2009 (% change)
	Month over month Apr 2009 over Apr 2008	YTD  (Jan - Apr  2009) Over YTD 2008	Rolling 12 months, through Apr 2009
PaxFlash
International passenger	-1.8	-7.6	-2.8
Domestic passenger	-4.9	-6.7	-4.8
Total passenger	-3.0	-7.0	-3.9
FreightFlash
International freight	-23.0	-23.5	-12.1
Domestic freight	-9.5	-11.7	-8.5
Total freight	-18.4	-19.4	-10.9