• Total Passengers: 4.4 billion, -2.7%
• Total International Passengers: 1.8 billion, -4.2%
• Total Cargo (includes mail): 71.3 million metric tonnes, -8.2%
• Total International Freight: 41.7 million metric tonnes, -10.1%
• Total Aircraft Movements: 63.9 million, -5.5%

• Process improvements
• Technology
• Human capital management
• Physical infrastructure
• Capital investments
• Privacy protections

• Fred Dust, partner and practice lead at IDEO
• Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at CATO
• Kevin Hassett, senior fellow and director of economic policy studies at American Enterprise Institute
• Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, former staff director of the House Homeland Security Committee
• The Honorable Kathryn "Kitty" Higgins, former board member of the National Transportation Safety Board
• The Honorable Robert Jamison, former deputy administrator at the Transportation Security Administration
• Kathleen Kraninger, former deputy assistant secretary for screening coordination at the Department of Homeland Security
• Michael Lind, policy director of the Economic Growth Program, New America Foundation
• Mo McGowan, former federal security director for Dallas / Fort Worth Airport at the Transportation Security Administration
• Ajay Mehra, executive vice president at OSI Systems and president of Rapiscan Systems
• Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies
• Rick Patrick, vice president at L-1 Identity Solutions
• Thomas Ripp, president of L-3 Security and Detection Systems
• Stephanie Rowe, former assistant administrator for Transportation Threat Assessment & Credentialing at the Transportation Security Administration
• Bennet Waters, former Deputy Assistant Administrator at the Transportation Security Administration

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that February 2010 international scheduled air traffic showed continued strengthening of demand. Compared to February 2009, passenger demand was up 9.5%, while cargo demand grew 26.5%.

These are strong gains, but it must be noted that February 2009 marked the bottom of the cycle for passenger traffic during the global economic recession. Passenger demand must recover by a further 1.4% to return to pre-crisis levels. 

Cargo hit bottom in December 2008, with little improvement realized by February 2009. Cargo traffic, which plunged much further than passenger demand, has a further 3% to recover in order to return to pre-crisis levels.

"We are moving in the right direction. In two to three months, the industry should be back to pre-recession traffic levels. This is still not a full recovery. The task ahead is to adjust to two years of lost growth," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO.

The highlight for February was improved load factors, which stood at 75.5%. Considering that February is traditionally the weakest month for travel, and if seasonally adjusted, this translates to an all-time record February load factor of 79.3%.

While demand increased by 9.5%, capacity was held back to just 1.9% growth. Airlines are maintaining normal aircraft utilization on short-haul fleets but long-haul utilization is down over 8% compared to 2008 levels. The resulting increase in unit costs for long-haul operations may delay the positive impact of stronger demand to the bottom line.

International Passenger Demand

Regional demand patterns continue to reflect the asymmetrical nature of the economic rebound.

• European carriers posted the weakest growth at 4.3%.  This is the result of sluggish home economies, rising unemployment and labor strikes. This region saw a capacity reduction in February (-0.5%).
• North American airlines posted weak growth of 4.4%. Having cut capacity deeply during the recession (February 2010 capacity was 3.0% below 2009 levels), this is to be expected. Consumers continue to pay down debt rather than increase spending, keeping demand for air travel comparatively weak.
• In contrast to Europe and North America, Asia-Pacific carriers posted strong traffic growth of 13.5%, which was partly boosted by the timing of the Chinese New Year. Compared with the mid-2009 low there has been a 19% rebound.
• Middle Eastern airlines recorded traffic growth of 25.8%--the strongest of any region. Travel markets continue to develop within the region creating new demand. Successful competition on long-haul connections to Asia over Middle Eastern hubs has improved market share for the region's carriers.
• Latin American carriers posted growth of 8.5% on the strength of the performance of the region's economies.
• African airlines have also benefited from strong local economies with a 9.8% growth.  However, capacity is also coming back fast (+9.2%) so airlines in this region continue to see the weakest load factors.

International Cargo Demand

• European airlines are benefiting least from the strong upturn in air freight volumes, with year-on-year growth of just 7.2% in February, compared to 26.5% on average.
• Despite the sluggish US economy, North American airlines have seen a rebound (+34.1%) equivalent to those experienced by Asia-Pacific (+34.5%) and Latin American airlines (+41.9%). While U.S. Gross Domestic Product expanded at 5.9% during the fourth quarter, consumer spending was up just 1.7%. The bulk of the expansion is attributed to businesses restocking inventories.
• The global strong air freight upturn has been largely driven by the business inventory cycle. IATA expects this part of the cycle to wear-out in the second half of the year when inventories reach normal levels. From that point, slower growth can be expected as air freight will be driven by consumer spending and world trade growth.