By Sui-Lee Wee and Pete Harrison
HONG KONG/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Airlines and their suppliers are reporting tentative signs that a severe industry recession is bottoming out, sending shares higher on Tuesday.
Airbus, the world's largest producer of passenger jets, said airline traffic had possibly seen "the trough of the recession" and could start to rebound from next year.
"In 2009 we believe total traffic is down 2 percent. In 2010 we may experience a 4.6 percent growth rate," Laurent Rouaud, senior vice president of market and product strategy, said at the Asian Aerospace exhibition in Hong Kong.
In Europe, Air France-KLM said passenger traffic fell 2.9 percent in August but its planes were on average 84.8 percent full, a rise of 1.1 percentage points from the same holiday peak month a year ago.
Its shares rose over 6 percent, helping to push the DJ Stoxx pan-European Travel and Leisure index up 2.6 percent.
The figures came as industry data for July showed airline passenger and freight traffic dropped much less sharply year-on-year than in the first half of 2009.
Industry body ACI Europe said after a survey of 106 airports passenger traffic at European airports fell 4.3 percent compared with July 2008, versus an average 9.6 percent drop during the preceding six months of this year.
Freight traffic -- a widely watched indicator of economic health -- fell 13.4 percent compared with July 2008, an improvement on the average 22.4 percent decrease during the preceding six months.
"That would fit with our picture," said economist Cristoph Weil at Commerzbank. "We believe we will see a strong recovery in Q3 and Q4 in the euro area."
Air France-KLM said its cargo business had in August confirmed signs of stabilization seen in recent months.
Ireland's Aer Lingus said on Monday passenger numbers had risen 7.7 percent year-on-year in August.
GROWTH PREDICTED
Economists say the global economy looks to be pulling out of recession, with the OECD predicting a renewal of growth for the United States and euro zone in the third quarter.
But, like the airline industry, the broader economy remains on life support and G20 finance ministers agreed on September 5 to keep stimulus measures in place..
ACI Europe's numbers were helped slightly by weak comparative figures in July 2008, when the economic downturn first started to bite and passenger data entered negative territory for the first time in six years.
But weak comparatives account for only about a fifth of the improvement in freight volumes, ACI archive figures show.
Still, Airbus and Boeing are headed for their worst annual order tally in at least 15 years as struggling airlines cancel or defer almost as many planes as they buy.
The world's airlines are expected to post total 2009 losses of $9 billion, with first-half net losses reaching at least $6 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association..
Air France-KLM last week announced 1,500 voluntary redundancies, adding to thousands of airline job cuts worldwide.
Rouaud however said Airbus was on track to deliver 480 aircraft in 2009 and aircraft financing has been "so far, so good." Deliveries lag orders by several years but airlines only have to pay for aircraft when they are delivered.
The EADS subsidiary is projecting 2009 plane deliveries at least as high as last year's record 483 aircraft, but has said it will extend recent production cuts if conditions worsen.
Even if airlines start to fly out of recession, they will be haunted by big questions on costs, especially fuel, Rouaud said.
At $67.90 a barrel, benchmark North Sea Brent crude futures prices have risen 38 percent since the end of March.
(Additional reporting by Brian Love and Helen Massy-Beresford; Writing by Tim Hepher; Editing by David Holmes)
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