Business news digest

REGION

AirTran continues growth

PITTSBURGH — AirTran Airlines continued its impressive growth at Pittsburgh International Airport as the airline reported a 10.5 percent increase in traffic in June 2009 compared with June 2008, according to the June 2009 Scheduled Airline Traffic Report prepared by the Allegheny County Airport Authority.

Overall, Pittsburgh International Airport reported a total of 741,711 scheduled passengers were enplaned and deplaned at the airport in June 2009, an 8.3 percent decrease compared with June 2008.

NATION

AIG reports a profit

American International Group Inc. is reporting its first quarterly profit since 2007, as the company saw stability in some of its businesses. The troubled insurer says it made $1.82 billion during the second quarter which ended June 30. Of that, $311 million, or $2.30 per share, was attributable to common shareholders because the government owns 80 percent of the company after bailing it out last fall. AIG now has a loan package worth up to $182.5 billion.

AIG has been aiming to spin off some of its assets to begin to repay the government money. It says it expects proceeds of about $8 billion from sales so far this year, giving it about $4.6 billion to begin to repay debts including what it owes the government.

Canada loses 45,000 jobs

TORONTO — Canada lost a more-than-expected 45,000 jobs in July, but Statistics Canada said the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.6 percent, an 11-year-high. The 45,000 job loss figure is well above the previous month’s 7,400 retreat. Most of the losses have occurred in manufacturing and have been centered in Canada’s most populous province of Ontario, the center of the country’s manufacturing sector.

July auto sales in China surpass U.S. again

BEIJING — China’s auto sales surpassed the United States’ again in July, jumping 64 percent over a year earlier to 1.1 million vehicles as sales-tax cuts and government subsidies spurred demand, according to data reported Friday. The figures are a boost to global automakers that are looking to China to drive revenues amid sluggish demand elsewhere.

China, with 1.3 billion people, has long been expected to overtake the United States as the biggest vehicle market. But the U.S. economic slump hastened that shift by depressing American sales while China surged ahead. Customers in the United States bought 997,824 cars and light trucks in July, according to research firm Autodata Corp. China’s July sales raise its total for the first seven months of 2009 to 7.2 million vehicles, while U.S. passenger car sales totaled 5.8 million.

Wire reports