The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its monthly statistics for scheduled international airline traffic.

August passenger traffic was down 4.6% on August 2001, but was better than July 2002 results of -6.5%.

Freight traffic continues to be up at +10.6% over August 2001.

· IATA has 273 member airlines from 143 countries. Its members carry over 98% of total international scheduled traffic.

· Released statistics give top line numbers for passenger and freight traffic and capacity. Statistics are based on voluntary reporting from a number of IATA carriers around the world

· Subscriptions to the full statistical report provide a monthly update of major industry trends.

Subscriptions are available from the IATA Aviation Information & Research Department (AIR), located in London or on the newly launched IATA Global Aviation Business Information site www.iataGABI.com

Contact Patrick Folley at folleyp@iata.org or tel: +44 20 8607 6207