International air passenger traffic volumes are displaying some much-needed positivity with figures up by almost 30% in December month-on-month, according to data from air4casts.

As of 5 February, 393 international airports published their December figures – a little beneath 60% of the number expected for the month – with pax levels up 28.5% month-on-month.

The 630 airports in total that reported data revealed their best results since April last year, says the travel retail marketing firm, following encouraging figures reported in January,

Latin America demonstrated notable gains of +38.3%, while North Americas notched +24.8%.

“The fact that an increase of this magnitude will certainly not last into January is of less importance than the observation that consumer willingness to travel remains strong,” said air4casts.

However, while this is encouraging the total international and domestic numbers for the 630 airports (international and domestic) remain 60 percentage points down on 2019 pax levels.

*Represents more than 60% of total traffic (international plus domestic pax) for the month of December.