We know air passenger traffic is down. That’s why the airlines are holding sale after sale and offering deals, deals, deals.

But now Bloomberg has noted that United and American Airlines’ traffic wasn’t down quite so much in March as in the previous month – and that this may mean the travel slump is easing – or as they put it, the results “hint at stabilization in demand after the recession crimped business and leisure trips.”

If more and more people do start flying, airlines can start raising fares, right?

Well, a couple of thoughts here: Were these March passenger business or leisure travelers? You can usually figure that, because of the different prices they pay for tickets, it takes at least two leisure travelers to equal the revenue provided by a single business traveler. So if the planes are filled with lower-paying leisure travelers, that’s not especially good for the airlines.

But something else to consider – the March traffic picture was a little brighter even without people traveling for Easter (a holiday that fell in March back in 2008) – and that’s encouraging.

Let me say this: if we are bottoming out on falling passenger stats – and this is a very big “if” – the summer airfare sales may not come as fast-and-furiously as we saw with the spring sales. But, I have my doubts on that. For the moment – I think we can expect more sales.