Air traffic figures for June at Hong Kong International Airport showed that life was slowly returning to normal for the aviation industry after the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

According to a press release of Hong Kong Airport Authority on Wednesday, the effect of SARS was still apparent, as the June total passenger traffic figure was down 57.2 percent compared with the same month of last year.

However, this still marked an improvement over the previous month. In May, passenger traffic was down 79.9 percent from the same month of 2002. While total aircraft movement experienced a year-on-year decline of 43.1 percent, this represented an increase of 15 percent from May.

The Airport Authority's Chief Executive Officer, David J. Pang, expressed confidence in the rebound. "The latest figures show that we are well on track to making a full," he said. July looked set to continue the trend: daily passenger traffic figures for the first week of the month were already up to about 70 percent of pre-SARS levels.

A factor in the improved outlook was the World Health Organization's removal of Hong Kong from the list of SARS-affected areas on June 23, after the lifting of the travel advisory against the city a month earlier.

Promotional campaigns launched by both the travel and aviation industries also played a role, with the number of Hong Kong residents traveling almost back to the pre-SARS levels.

According to the authority, passenger throughput from July 2002 to June 2003 fell 13.7 percent to 28.4 million, compared with the previous 12-month period. Cargo throughput rose 14.3 percent to 2. 55 million tons, while total aircraft movement was down 3.4 percent to 191,445.

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