TORONTO - Porter Airlines released monthly traffic statistics for the first time Tuesday, in a move toward greater transparency that comes as it contemplates an initial public offering.

Porter Aviation Holdings Inc. announced it would make an IPO in April, but decided to suspended it in June due to poor stock market conditions, which deteriorated as Porter worked through the details.

Porter has indicated it is waiting for equity markets to stabilize before deciding to proceed with any share offering.

In the meantime, the privately-held airline has decided to release more information to the public.

"Beginning a standard disclosure process summarizing our monthly traffic will help inform the market about Porter's competitive positioning," Robert Deluce, president and CEO of Porter said in a statement.

The Toronto-based airline says its passenger traffic last month more than doubled to 63.7 million revenue passenger miles, up from 31 million in August 2009.

Capacity as measured by available seat miles was up 69 per cent, rising to 99.7 million from 59.1 million.

And Porter's load factor, which measures how much of its fleet capacity is used, improved to 63.9 per cent from 52.5 per cent -- still far below that of Air Canada (TSX:AC.A) and WestJet (TSX:WJA).

"The improvements shown in 2010, particularly in the second half of the year, largely reflect a fully deployed 20-aircraft fleet as of this spring," said Deluce.

"Porter's industry-leading break-even load factor of 49 per cent in 2009 puts us in a very good position for the rest of this year given the type of numbers we are posting."

The global airline industry has rebounded and is expected to return to profitability this year after turning in their first losing performance in five years in 2009, when consumers cut back on travel during the recession.

Porter is the only carrier that currently flies out of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport on one of Toronto's islands. But in June, Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) and U.S. carrier Continental Airlines were granted initial approval to fly into and out of the downtown Toronto airport.

Porter, which began operations in 2006, currently runs a fleet of 20 aircraft flying short-haul flights within Canada and the United States.