For the first ten months of 2009, total freight has declined by 12 percent, with international freight down by 15 percent and domestic freight by 6 percent, relative to the same 10-month period in 2008. Gittens adds, “A word of caution. This is not a sharp turning point, and even if positive growth continues in November and December, we are still likely to see a negative overall result for 2009 of about 10 percent.”

Passenger traffic continues the improvement trend, as reported in the ACI PaxFlash. Compared to October 2008, airports saw an increase of 1.8 percent in total global traffic, 3.5 percent in domestic traffic and flat performance (-0.2%) in international traffic. Positive results in October were bolstered by improved results in Europe and North America – mature markets hard hit by economic recession. Latin America-Caribbean airports registered strong domestic growth (up 26%). Continuing growth in Asia Pacific and Middle East markets also contributed to the improving overall results, although slightly below strong September results. African traffic remains slightly lower than monthly growth levels recorded in September.

Comparing month by month results against 2008 for the past 12 months, global traffic has continued to climb since May 2009, with domestic traffic leading the renewed demand curve. The slight decrease in domestic traffic is due to more moderate growth results primarily in China; modest results in the Philippines reflect the impact of bad weather conditions. Key Indian airports report good results including strong domestic traffic growth at Mumbai (+ 33.1 %), Delhi (+37.9 %), equally reported by Sao Paulo (GRU up 37%), Jakarta (+26.4%) and Bangkok (+54.9% domestic and +11.4% international ). International traffic leaders include Kuala Lumpur (+19.5%), Washington DC (+16.8 %), Dubai (+12.2%) and Istanbul (+13.6%).