The Association of European Airlines has published the third in its series of weekly traffic reports, covering…
The Association of European Airlines has published the third in its series of weekly traffic reports, covering the week which ended on 6th April – the third week of the Iraqi conflict.
The figures paint a gloomy picture. Overall passenger traffic was 10.4% lower than in the corresponding week of 2002. The traffic loss in Europe was 15%, on Far Eastern routes 10.1% and across the North Atlantic 7.7%.
On routes to the Middle East the decrease was 45.5%.
A result of this latest traffic loss has been to produce a negative figure also in the yearto-date total. Commented AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus: For the first ten weeks of the year, our market was growing – at a modest rate of only 3.5%, and from a very low baseline. In just four weeks that growth has been completely wiped out.
Under normal circumstances, the AEA airlines would expect to board close to six million passengers a week at this time of year. The latest figures, he said, represented a passenger count of scarcely more than five million.
Week 12, 20th March 2003, saw the outbreak of the Iraq war. Note that the data above is based on results for a selection of AEA members, representing 98% of the membership at full participation. Previous week`s data may be updated with data missing at time of initial publication.
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