全球航空旅行猛增20%

　　国际旅行业务将继续从SARS和战争阴影中回弹。 　　全球航空旅行组织，国际航空运输协会（International Air Transport Association，IATA）周一称，在今年1-5月间，国际航空旅行人数将比去年同期增长19.4%。该组织还称，同期货运量增长12.2%。该组织总干事Giovanni Bisignani称，业务不仅仅从SARS和伊拉克战争恢复过来，所有地区都报告了航空运输量都超过了2000年的水平。

　　仅今年5月全球国际航线的旅行者比去年同期增长了38%。IATA称，亚洲航线恢复更加凌厉，今年5月的运量是去年同期的108%，表明SARS影响真实并完全的过去了。

　　International air passenger traffic rose by 19.4 percent between January and May this year compared with the same period last year, the global airlines body IATA said Monday.

　　Freight traffic over the same five months was up 12.2 percent, according to figures released by the Geneva-based grouping, the International Air Transport Association.

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

　　In May alone, passengers on all international routes were up 38 percent from May last year when the industry was suffering from the impact of the SARS epidemic that swept across Asia and reached Canada and fallout from the invasion of Iraq.

　　For Asian airlines, IATA said, the recovery was even more dramatic. Traffic there in May was up by 108 percent on that of the same month last year, indicating that the "SARS effect" was well and truly over.

　　IATA said the January-May figures showed passenger traffic up 8.8 percent over the same period in 2000, just before the onset of a global economic downturn which set the industry on a steep downward path.

　　That decline was sharpened by growing global political instability after the September 2001 hijacking attacks in the United States, the U.S.-led assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq, global terrorism, and the SARS crisis.

　　Earlier this year airline chiefs feared that steep rises in oil prices would hit the industry's overall global bottom line, but Bisignani, in a statement on the figures, said a recent decline had helped improve the situation.

　　But efficiency gains and cost-cutting would have to remain priorities for airlines if the industry was to return to full health, he declared.

　　IATA said that despite the shocks that had rocked the industry over the past four years, its underlying growth rate was 3.6 percent a year. However, this is still only half the rate achieved during the later 1990s.

　　Of the major regions apart from Asia, North America saw a passenger growth of 32.8 percent in the first five months of this year over January-May 2003 and Europe saw an increase of 19.1 percent, according to IATA.

　　In the Middle East, traffic was up by 43.9 percent, and in Latin America by 11.5 percent January-May. In Africa the increase was 8.3 percent.