IATA says global air travel growth down in Jan MONTREAL (Reuters) =97 The growth in world airline traffic slowed in= January,=20 the International Air Transport Association said Thursday, adding that a=20 U.S. war against Iraq could badly damage an industry still recovering from= =20 the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States by hijacked airliners. The=20 international industry group said overall passenger traffic slowed to a=20 year-over-year growth rate of 11% in January, down from a 13% rate in the=20 previous month. Traffic is measured by IATA in revenue=20 passenger-kilometres, or the number of paying passengers multiplied by the= =20 distance they fly. North America remained the weakest region for global=20 airlines, the association said, with traffic up only 6.4% in January, well= =20 below December's 11.2% growth rate. Traffic in Europe increased 11.6%,=20 slightly higher than the 10.7% posted in December, according to preliminary= =20 data. Traffic in Asia grew 13.3%, down from 16.7% the previous month. The=20 Middle East region continued to show the highest growth, with a 24.8%=20 improvement in January. "Global traffic figures are back to their levels of= =20 January 2001," IATA's director general and chief executive, Giovanni=20 Bisignani, said in a release. "And this long-awaited recovery is obviously= =20 clouded by the crisis looming over Iraq." World airline traffic, already=20 squeezed by a global economic downturn, plunged in the wake of the Sept.=20 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, forcing some carriers into=20 insolvency and pushing others to the brink of collapse. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************