The unexpectedly strong performance had been driven largely by recovery of traffic between Europe and the Far East which had been hit by the SARS health scare in 2003.

Only a month ago the association had forecast that its 31 member airlines would show an aggregate loss of about 500 million dollars (384 million neuros) for 2004.

But it said on Friday that it now expected to see a small profit of 900 million euros in 2004 which would be the first profit since 1998.

The 31 AEA members had increased business in terms of passenger/kilometres by 9.0 percent last year from the 2003 figure and the number of passengers carried by 4.8 percent to a total of 307 million.