Airlines will take years to recover says UN

It will take the world’s airlines years to recover from the terrorist attacks on the United States, the UN labour agency said today.

‘‘The events of September 11 were unlike any other shock experienced by the industry,’’ said a statement issued after two days of talks by independent and airline experts organised by the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

Already more than 200,000 of the four million people working for airlines worldwide have lost their jobs, ILO said.

‘‘It is expected to take years for the industry to reach the same levels as before September 11,’’ said Jean-Jacques Elmiger, a Swiss official who chaired the two day discussion.

The meeting also included separate sessions on the impact on the hotel and tourism industries, which ILO said were already experiencing severe problems before the attacks because of global economic problems.

Preliminary tourism industry figures suggest that the impact on employment could be ‘‘catastrophic,’’ said ILO.

Some 207 million people work in tourism around the world, 8% of the world’s work force, the agency said.

It predicted nearly nine million of them could lose their jobs.

The agency urged governments to provide adequate funds to help the tourism industry and workers who lose their jobs.

The airline industry’s umbrella organization IATA, also based in Geneva, said today that global passenger traffic in September was 17% below the same month in 2000.