World's airlines register strong recovery for 2004 - UN

The world's airlines registered a strong recovery this year with performance for scheduled traffic as measured in ton-kilometres showing a 14 per cent increase over 2003, according to preliminary figures released by the United Nations aviation agency.

A ton-kilometre is a combined measure of passenger, freight and mail traffic which also takes into account distance flown. The number of passengers carried worldwide on scheduled services is estimated to have reached 1.8 billion compared with less than 1.7 billion last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said.

The number of seats offered also increased with an average passenger load of 73 per cent, up from 71 in 2003, according to the figures which are based on statistics supplied by ICAO's 188 Contracting States.

On a regional basis, airlines in the Middle East showed strong growth, followed by Asia/Pacific which in 2003 was negatively affected by the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) there. Growth in North America was similar to the world average, while Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean showed strong increases that were nevertheless below the world average.