European airlines' international traffic rises

The Association of European Airlines has said that European airlines' international traffic in the week of November 3rd to 9th was up by 6.1% on the same period a year earlier.

It said that the rise in international traffic for the full year will be unlikely to exceed 0.5%.

On European routes, traffic was up 5.8% while North Atlantic routes' traffic rose 7.6 % - the largest year-on-year gain for eight weeks.

Routes to the Far East had a growth of 3.9% but the association warned that while the trend is now positive, the annual figures are still likely to be substantially below the 2002 level.

Traffic on these routes fell sharply, in one week down 9.3% from a year earlier, this is attributed to fears about the spread of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Asia.