KUALA LUMPUR – Major Asia/Pacific airlines launched a US$1 million media blitz today to renew confidence and re-establish the weakened travel industry post-September 11. Led by the 18-member Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the campaign themed “travel moves people”, targets travellers put off by the global terrorism scare. “The urgent need to restore confidence in travel is an industry issue that requires support from the various stakeholders,” said AAPA director-general Richard Stirland. The campaign covers Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. “The campaign focuses on intra-Asian travel as our statistics show that intra-regional travel accounts for a significant portion of our member airlines’ revenue passenger kilometres. Coupled with the uncertain economic situation, it makes sense to focus our efforts within the region first,’’ said Stirland. According to the latest AAPA statistics, worldwide passenger traffic contracted 16.9 percent in November, the same as in October. Traffic within the Asia/Pacific declined 14 percent while passenger numbers fell 40 percent between the region and North America and 17 percent between Asia and Europe. “In this region, traffic growth was running at seven to eight percent a year. We’re now looking at figures that are down by more than 10 percent,” said Stirland. The three-month campaign, ending in April, is funded by AAPA, Airbus Industrie, PATA and Abacus.