Riding the storm

It was a stark reminder of the scars the events of September 11, 2001 had left on the airline industry that, on the second anniversary of the attacks, Germany's national carrier, Lufthansa, considered it necessary to cancel four of its eight daily flights between Germany and the US due to low passenger numbers.

The past six years have been the most difficult period of the sector's 98-year history. Global airline stocks lost 58% of their value in the two-year period to March 2003 as September