The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released statistics showing that February 2010's international scheduled air traffic strengthened with demand.
The highlight for the February numbers were improved load factors which stood at 75.5%. February is traditionally the weakest month for travel, meaning that if adjusted for the season, the figures translate to an all-time record February load factor of 79.3%. While demand increased by 9.5%, supply was held back to just 1.9%.
Numbers show that when compared to February of last year, passenger demand is up 9.5%, while cargo demand grew 26.5%.
Despite the promising signs, IATA's Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, cautioned, "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."
Although there have been strong gains, it must also be mentioned that February 2009 marked the bottom of the cycle for passenger traffic during the global economic recession.
Passenger demands must recover by a further 1.4% before reaching the pre-crisis levels while cargo traffic, which plunged much further than passenger demand, has a further 3% to go.
In contrast to Europe and North America, Asia-Pacific carriers boasted a strong traffic growth of 13.5%, partially thanks to the timing of the Lunar New Year.
It should be noted that IATA's numbers reflect only international air traffic, not domestic flights.
IATA represents some 230 airlines which make up for 93% of scheduled international air traffic.