International traffic growth encourages IATA

Print Article E-Mail Article

International air passenger traffic rose by 19.4% between January and May this year compared with the same period last year, the global airlines body International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. In May alone, passengers on all international routes were up 38% on May last year.

"Not only have we recovered from the impact of SARS and war in Iraq,? said director-general Giovanni Bisignani, ?all major regions of the world are reporting traffic levels above those of 2000, the last normal year for our industry.?

For Asian airlines, IATA said, the recovery was even more dramatic. Traffic in May was up by 108% on that of the same month last year. January-May figures showed passenger traffic up 8.8% over the same period in 2000, just before the onset of the global economic downturn.

But efficiency gains and cost-cutting would have to remain priorities for airlines if the industry was to return to full health, said Bisignani. Despite the shocks that had rocked the industry over the past four years, IATA's underlying growth rate was 3.6% a year, still only half the rate achieved during the late 1990s.

Of the major regions apart from Asia, north America saw a passenger growth of 32.8% in the first five months of this year and Europe saw an increase of 19.1%. In the Middle East, traffic was up by 43.9% and in Latin America by 11.5%. In Africa the increase was 8.3%.