Well, a 10 minute trawl of the internet gives Easyjet's passenger figures 19.5% up in June on last year. Etihad announced on the 1st of July its figures were 41% up in the first half of the year, Monarch were 5.4% up in June over last year, Turkish Airlines (!) up 15.8% in the first quarter and Ryanair carried 19% more in June 2008 than last year. Lufthansa reports passenger numbers in the first 6 months of 2008 are 5.4% up on the same period last year. In fact, in the UK, only BA seem to be reporting a decline with passenger numbers 2.9% down across the fleet whilst saying 'Long-haul premium and short-haul non-premium continue to be the better performing segments of the business'.
That's what I mean by selective and alarmist reporting. Your serve.