The latest weekly snapshot of airline performance provided by the Association of European Airlines (AEA) shows year-on-year improvements in all but two route sectors for its member carriers, with the Far East and Australasia remaining "severely depressed". But gains in other sectors, particularly the North Atlantic, were wiped out by losses from eastern routes still affected by fears about the SARS virus.
For the week ending 27 April compared with the same week in 2002, total passenger traffic was down by 0.3% according to the AEA. The North Atlantic showed a "sharp increase of 10.9%, similar to the levels which prevailed before the Iraq war began to affect passenger confidence". European traffic grew 1.1%, but Far Eastern traffic was down 26.8%. Middle Eastern figures show traffic recovering from the worst effects of the war in Iraq - traffic was down 8.6%, but the previous week it was down 23.9%. At its worst, in the week ending 30 March, Middle Eastern traffic was 52.5% down.
AEA secretary general Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus says the figures illustrate the volatility of the market. "The perception of the SARS situation, as well as the lingering effects of the Iraq war and 11 September 2001, are very noticeable in producing irregularities in the figures."
Schulte-Strathaus also underlines the fact that the figures are being benchmarked against a situation in 2002 which was "already dramatically impacted by events".
Source: Flight International
