Air Berlin said it expected to make less money per seat sold in the fourth quarter after pushing through price increases in the first nine months of the year.

Air Berlin said Thursday its average yields -- measured by the revenue per km traveled by paying passengers -- improved by almost 8 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, to 8.24 euro cents.

In October, however, they eased and the decline will continue until the end of the year, Germany's second-biggest airline said.

Analysts have been eyeing yield developments at the world's airlines for signs of a recovery in demand for air travel. Lufthansa posted a 12.9 percent decline in third-quarter yields.

Industry body IATA said last month it was still too early to talk about a recovery as yields continued to be a "disaster". IATA has said it sees the world's airlines losing USD$11 billion this year as consumers tightened their purse strings and companies cut travel budgets.

Nonetheless, Air Berlin said it still expected its 2009 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to exceed the 2008 level. Adjusted for accounting changes, the carrier last year posted EBIT of EUR33 million (USD$49.4 million).

Air Berlin had already published key third-quarter results late on Wednesday, saying net profit more than doubled to EUR95.2 million. Shares jumped more than 8 percent in response.

Revenues were in line with expectations, having declined about 8 percent to EUR974 million.