IATA reports "continued strong growth"

Air travel is showing "continued strong growth" with demand in June up 11.9% compared with the same month last year.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said its latest traffic statistics showed the industry was continuing to recover from the global recession.

But the growth in Europe is still lagging behind other regions, the Association said.

It said that during the month, there was a slight increase in capacity with load factors at a "historical high" of 79.8%.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and ceo, said: "The industry continues to recover faster than expected, but with sharp regional differences.

"Europe is recovering at half the speed of Asia with passenger growth of 7.8% compared to the 15.5% growth in Asia-Pacific.

Business confidence remains high and there is no indication that the recovery will stall any time soon.

"But, with government stimulus packages tailing off and restocking largely completed, we do expect some slowing over the months ahead,

www.iata.org