July passenger and freight traffic worldwide continued to slide year-over-year, but data from the Airports Council International suggest the slide may be slowing.

Total worldwide passenger traffic was down 1.2% in July compared with the same month in 2008, but this was significantly better than the 5% year-over-year decline reported in June and the 8% reported in May, ACI's PaxFlash Report said.

Total international traffic was down 3.4% in July -- also better results than the year-over-year 7% decline reported in June. Only two regions -- the Middle East and Africa -- reported international traffic gains in July. Traffic in the Middle East rose by 11.6% in July, ACI said.

Domestic traffic was a slightly rosier picture, with a total worldwide decline in July of nine-tenths of one percent. This was in large part due to the torrid 10.1% growth in domestic traffic in Asia-Pacific. Latin America also reported strong domestic traffic growth of 9.5% in July compared with the same month in 2008, ACI said.

Freight traffic continues to show significant declines, although ACI's FreightFlash report said July showed some signs of that trend slowing. Total freight traffic was down 8.7% in July, compared with a year-to-date slide of 17.2%.

The Middle East is the only region that showed a growth in international freight traffic in July, up 3.5% year-over-year. In terms of domestic freight traffic, Asia-Pacific reported a 12.1% growth for the month, mainly due to economic growth in China.

Photo: SkyTeam