International air passenger traffic rose for the first time in seven months during September as the airline industry recovered from SARS and the Iraq war earlier this year, global airline body IATA said Monday.

Overall September passenger traffic rose one percent against the same month of 2002, said the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association, which represents over 270 airlines comprising 99 percent of scheduled international air traffic.

September saw a rebound from the 0.3 percent year-on-year decline in August and is a big turnaround from May, when traffic fell 21 percent as millions of travellers cancelled flights because of the SARS scare.

"The recovery post-SARS and Iraq have been faster than we originally anticipated," Andrew Drysdale, IATA's vice-president for Asia-Pacific told reporters at a briefing.

"Our current expectation is for the industry to turn in a profit of around USD$2.8 billion in 2004 if there is no significant changes to the environment."

The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a deadly flu-like virus that is known to have killed around 800 people, forced Asian airlines in particular to ground hundreds of flights and to slash costs.

But carriers such as Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines Ltd have restored flights back to pre-SARS levels as travel demand recovered.

IATA said the SARS scare and the Iraq war in March cost member airlines -- already bearing a collective total loss of USD$25 billion over the years 2001-2002 -- a further USD$4.9 billion.

But it said the estimated loss from SARS and the war was smaller than its previous forecast of a loss of USD$6.5 billion, as passenger traffic had recovered faster than expected.

Airlines based in the Asia-Pacific region reported a 1.6 percent year-on-year decline in passenger traffic for the month against a 4.6 percent decline in August.

Passenger traffic for European carriers rose 3.6 percent in September while passengers carried by North American airlines fell 3.6 percent in September over the same period a year earlier.

(Reuters)