European airports see traffic picking up

European airport operators said Thursday that they are seeing a "slow and gradual" recovery in air travel in October after an unprecedented fall in passenger numbers.

The Airports Council International Europe said that from January through September passenger traffic fell 7.7 percent and cargo slumped by 19.8 percent _ wiping out gains in the number of people flying over the last three years.

That decline is starting to turn around, they said. But they don't expect air travel to make a sustained recovery until mid-2010 and said current growth is coming almost entirely from low-cost airlines who are adding airplanes and routes as major carriers …