IATA traffic for Sep-2009

International passenger travel growth turned positive in September, up 0.3% on the same month last year, for the first time in 12 months. In August travel was down 1.1% and was 7.6% down during the first half of the year. It is clear that there has been an upturn in travel numbers since the low point in the market was reached at the end of the first quarter. The level of international passenger kilometers flown - seasonally adjusted - is now over 5% higher than that low. However, the improvement in the year-on-year growth rate in September was due entirely to the weakness last year, when the onset of the financial crisis hit travel hard. In fact travel volumes - seasonally adjusted - fell from August to September, as the chart below shows.