But IATA warns of likely dip from volcanic ash impact
Air traffic grew 10.3% in March compared with the same month last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.
With cargo up 28.1%, the airline association said these were "strong gains" but stressed that March last year was the "low point" for air traffic in the recession.
IATA reported a 78% load factor in March and said that load factors were at "record levels".
But it added that while capacity rose by 2% compared with 2009, it was still 3-4% below pre-crisis levels.
European carriers saw a traffic growth of 6% for the month but this was "considerably weaker" than other regions. Capacity was also still down by 0.8% compared with last year.
The Association blamed the smaller increase on "sluggish home economies and continuing high unemployment rates".
Asia-Pacific saw a 12.6% rise in air traffic, North America 7.8%, the Middle East 25.9% and Africa 13.6%.
Only Latin American carriers reported a smaller rise than Europe of 4.6%.
Giovanni Bisignani, director general and ceo of IATA, said: "March results show that the pace of the upturn is strong. But the trauma of the recession is not over.
"The industry has lost two years of growth, and passenger and freight markets are still 1% below early 2008 highs.
"Nonetheless, the pace of improvement, based on an improving global economic situation, is much faster than anybody would have expected even six months ago,"
But he warned the volcanic ash cloud which halted flying over much of north west Europe earlier this month, would affect April figures.
"European carriers were already showing the weakest recovery from the financial crisis through March.
"The volcanic ash crisis hit the weakest part of the industry the hardest.
"The majority of the $1.7bn in lost revenues was by Europe's carriers. Passenger confidence is not affected and we expect a quick rebound," he said.
www.iata.org