IATA has published figures that do really bring home the problems associated with air travel from an operational point of view last year. In May 2004 passenger traffic on all international routes was up by 38% as compared to May 2003. For Asian airlines alone the increase was even more extraordinary at 108% indicating a full traffic recovery from SARS. Overall, passenger traffic for the first five months of 2004 was up 19.4% over 2003, while freight traffic improved by 12.2% for the same period. In spite of problems associated with entry the US welcomed 3.4m international visitors in April, a 28% increase over April 2003. This total bolstered the 16% increase for the first four months of 2004 over 2003, which totalled 11.4m arrivals. UK visitation increased by 19% in April, with 424,000 arrivals easily the top overseas market with the exception of Canada and Mexico.
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