European airlines experienced a plunge of almost 29 percent in Far East passenger traffic last month.

The Association of European Airlines blames the massive toll on Asian routes on the impact of the SARS virus.

The severity of the SARS-related impact can be measured by the fact that a decrease of this magnitude has been measured only once before in any of the AEA's major markets, when very similar figures were recorded on the North Atlantic in October and November 2001, triggered by the September 11 outrage, the AEA said in a statement.

Although the picture was not quite as gloomy in other areas, the carriers recorded an overall downturn of 5.2 percent in international passenger numbers during May.

Trans-Atlantic travel fell 0.8 percent; Middle Eastern traffic was down by 2.1 percent while Intra-European traffic dropped 2.5 percent.

Losses of between USD$1 billion and USD$2.5 billion this year have been predicted by the Brussels-based trade body.