Airlines record slight improvement in January

THE SPEED of decline in passenger and freight traffic on the international scheduled services of IATA members was slower than anticipated, although volumes continued to fall in January 2002, according to figures released by IATA (International Air Transport Association). “The passenger traffic decline was 2% better than in December and that of freight traffic was more than 6% better.” Of equal significance - from the point of view of carriers’ recovery from their worst ever year of operations - was the success of the airlines in cutting capacity to match the fall in traffic.