Freight volumes improved 20.6 percent for airlines in 2010, outstripping the 8.9-percent increase in cargo capacity, the International Air Transport Association reported recently.

The freight load factor increased 5.2 percent to 53.8 percent. Passenger traffic rebounded 8.2 percent.

It was a good year compared to the multibillion-dollar losses of 2008 and 2009, but airline profit margins were only 2.7 percent. And airfreight sagged in the second half of 2010.

Airfreight volume was 1-percent higher than the pre-recession levels of early 2008, but volumes fell 5 percent since the peak air shipping time when companies were actively engaged in restocking inventories.

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