IF THEY hadn’t already, statistics tonight (Asian time) from the airline industry’s world body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), indicated the world economy is no longer in recession and people are travelling again, with North American air travel up 2.1% in January 2010, compared with January 2009, and Europe up 3.1%.

However, the full year numbers are still down, indicating that, even though growth has returned, a number of months of catch-up are required before the doldrums can be declared over.

The new Middle East carriers, mining latent so-called "sixth freedom" (onward traffic) demand mainly between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, were the star performers with the region up 23.6% compared with January 2009 while Latin America was up 11%. The world average increase was 6.4%.

"Airlines have lost 2-3 years of growth (but) demand is moving in the right direction," IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said from Geneva. "We can start to see the future with some cautious optimism, but better volumes do not necessarily mean better profits. Passenger yields (average fares paid) are still 15% below peak. And we expect 2010 losses to be $US5.6 billion."