Air Traffic Hit Hard By Global Economic Crisis

USA Air trafficThe economic crisis which is affecting the American airline industry is also hitting European and other worldwide airlines hard, according to the Association of European Airlines (AEA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Worldwide, country-to-country flights were down 2.9 percent in September, which is the first decline since the SARS epidemic cause mass panic among air passengers in 2003. Asia has been particularly hard hit, with a 6.8 percent decline.

Latin America was the only region to see an increase in passenger traffic, with a 1.7 boost since last fall.

Flights within European countries have fallen 12 percent since last year, and overall passenger numbers on the continent are down 1.1 percent. Transatlantic flights did not grow at all, though there was a small increase in traffic between Europe and the Middle East and the south Atlantic.

Alitalia saw the worst drop in passenger numbers with 25 percent fewer people flying than a year ago. Spanair and Iceland Air were also hard hit, with 21 percent and 12 percent drops, respectively. Lufthansa was one of the few airlines to see a gain, with a 4.2 percent increase.

The AEA blames the slowing economy, declining consumer confidence and high oil prices for the first decrease in European air traffic in 25 years. Unfortunately officials do not see an end in sight, as many countries continue to slide toward recession.

International air cargo traffic also dropped 7.7 percent last month compared to September 2007, which is a major indicator of the state of world trade. According to IATA, it was the biggest monthly drop since the dotcom bubble burst in 2001.

Link: International Herald-Tribune, Reuters, Xinhua News Agency

By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.

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