Asia-Pacific airlines have carriers recorded a significant improvement in passenger traffic with a 2.1 percent increase in September, from the 1.6 percent decline in August this year.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted that bucking the global trend, seasonally adjusted passenger volumes grew almost 1 percent from August to September.

IATA said three factors are influencing this relative strength — government stimulus packages in the major economies are driving production increases, the region’s banking system is relatively strong and the region’s consumers are not as burdened by debt as those in Europe and the US.

By contrast, European carriers saw a deterioration in demand from negative 2.8% in August to -4.2% in September. This partly reflects a loss of market share by network carriers on short-haul routes to low-cost carriers.

IATA said there has been a deterioration in demand on long-haul routes. For routes to Asia, this appears to be the influence of “home-carrier-bias” which has seen Asia-Pacific carriers reap the benefit of stronger regional economies.

On routes to North America, lower demand in general is related to the dip in consumer and business confidence in economies on both sides of the North Atlantic.

North American carriers saw demand largely unchanged from negative 2.4% in September compared to negative 2.5% in August. This flattening-out is related to a dip in consumer and business confidence.

Middle Eastern carriers experienced an 18.2% year-on-year increase in September. This was distorted by the shifting of the Ramadan period, which started in August 2009, compared with September last year.

IATA said growth is driven primarily by market share gains on long-haul routes via Middle Eastern hubs. Weaker oil revenues continue to depress economic growth and travel within the region.

Latin American carriers experienced a jump in demand from -2.3% in August to +3.4% in September based on relatively robust regional economies.

African carriers also saw a marginal improvement from -4.9% in August to -4.2% in September. While African economies have been relatively resilient in the recession, the region’s carriers continue to struggle to maintain market share.

On the other hand, international cargo traffic is 12 percent above the December 2008 low point, but remains 17% below the early 2008 peak.

Middle Eastern carriers showed the strongest performance of any region with a 3.6% year-on-year improvement.

Latin American carriers also reported growth of 1.8%, but this was a decline from the previous month's growth of 3.9%. (EHL)