KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (Bernama) -- Domestic air passenger traffic worldwide in September 2009 rose by 4.4 per cent from the same month last year while global passenger traffic increased by 1.6 per cent, according to the Airports Council International (ACI).

"The downward trend began to ease in the second quarter and now in the fourth quarter we are seeing growth," said director-general Angela Gittens in a report to members at the ACI annual conference here Wednesday.

"We are not just seeing 'less worse' results, but some clear signs of new growth in selected domestic markets," she said, adding that this contributed to the positive global results despite international traffic at one per cent below results in 2008.

Gittens said domestic traffic results in China, Brazil and India were leading the global upswing, and the Asia Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions dominated September traffic results with increases in domestic traffic of 12.5 and 16.2 per cent respectively.

"A number of major and emerging economies expanded or returned to GDP (gross domestic product) growth in the third quarter which is driving the improved results," she said.

Economic stimulus programmes, stiff domestic competition and low fares contributed to the strong results in Brazil and China, Gittens said.

"North America, Europe and Africa remained virtually flat in terms of domestic traffic change," she said.

Global freight in September 2009 was three per cent below traffic in the same period last year.

This, according to Gittens, represented an accelerating upward trend, again driven by domestic results which rose by four per cent as compared to a six per cent decline in international freight.

"The year-to-date slump in freight has been much deeper than the passenger decline, so seeing these moderate declines comes as a pleasant surprise and may point to a quicker recovery in the freight sector than previously thought," she said.

"Drivers again are Asia Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions," Gittens said, adding that the Asia Pacific performance showed a stunning recovery from -28 per cent to an increase of 1.3 per cent in September 2009.

-- BERNAMA