The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that the international freight traffic, bolstered by renewed strength in the global economy, continued its recent recovery with 5.2 percent growth for January. Both of these are above the full-year growth rates recorded for 2005 — 7.6 percent for passenger traffic and 3.2 percent for freight.

"The industry is on track with 2006 growth expectations of 5-6% for both freight and passenger traffic," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

"The story for January was freight which is starting to show a definite strengthening trend following the disappointing 3.2 percent growth of 2005. "This is the first time in a year we have seen two consecutive months of freight traffic growth above 5% which points to a resurgent world economy," said Bisignani.

January’s 5.2 percent freight growth followed 5.5 percent growth in December 2005. Asia-Pacific led freight growth at 8.3 percent, boosted by strong growth in Chinese trade and a recovering Japanese economy.

For passenger traffic, the Middle East led all regions with an 18.3 percent jump in traffic. The region has posted doubledigit growth in 29 of the past 31 months.

Higher traffic levels have also translated into higher load factors. January’s passenger load factor was 74.6 percent up 1.1 percent from January 2005.

"We are filling the planes—and with high load factors—but there is a lot to do before the industry’s balance sheet recovers. The industry faces several risks," said Bisignani.

"The rising price of oil continues to kill our profitability. The airlines are managing capacity as carefully as they are managing costs. As the record aircraft orders of last year are delivered, matching capacity to demand will become even more critical. And Avian Flu is the wild card for 2006," Bisignani added.

He noted that turning growth into profitability remains the challenge.

Airlines are attacking costs on all fronts. Non-fuel unit costs dropped by 13 percent over the past four years.

Bisgnani expects the same efficiency from the monopoly partners—airports and air navigation service providers.

"Governments must grant us commercial freedoms and bring some commonsense to taxation. We can ill-afford the absurd taxes on aviation that have recently been imposed in France and proposed in Sweden," Bisignani said. (Edu Lopez)