World air passenger traffic rose 20 percent in the first half of this year as travel recovered from the effects of the SARS virus and the invasion of Iraq, official figures showed on Wednesday.
Issuing the figures, the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the outlook for the rest of 2004 was also good, forecasting double-digit growth in international air passenger traffic for the year as whole.
While oil prices remained a risk, cost controls introduced by the airlines in the wake of the long travel downturn meant that the industry could achieve break-even or better by the end of the year, IATA said.
"International passenger traffic growth in the first half of 2004 substantially exceeded our expectations," IATA Director-General Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement.
"If current growth trends prevail, and barring any unforeseen event, we could end the year with double-digit growth, surpassing our March expectation of 7.5 percent for the year," he added.
Passenger traffic was 20.4 percent higher in the January-to-June period compared with a year earlier, while cargo traffic was 13 percent higher, IATA said.
Traffic in the six-month period was up by 35 percent in the key Asia-Pacific region, by 20.1 percent in North America, which covers the huge US air travel market, and by 12.8 percent in Europe. The smaller Middle East region was up 44.3 percent.
For the month of June alone, overall global passenger traffic was 25.5 percent higher year-on-year.
An almost 70 percent rebound was registered in Asia-Pacific, 21.2 percent in North America, 12.5 percent in Europe, and 36.7 percent in the Middle East.
