Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Japan Airlines Corp. and All Nippon Airways Co., the country's two largest carriers, said more people traveled abroad in summer this year after the 2003 outbreak of SARS ended in Asia.

The number of people who made overseas trips on Japan Airlines rose 28 percent to 674,976 between July 16 and Aug. 15 while All Nippon's traffic rose 23 percent to its record of 383,552 in the same period, the two carriers said in separate press releases.

Business and leisure air travel have resumed among the Japanese as the economy recovers from a decade-long slump. More passengers are taking to the sky after last year's outbreak of the SARS and bird-flu epidemics ended, encouraging more people to people to visit such destinations as China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

``Overseas traffic is moving back to the 2002 level'' of about 706,000 passengers even as ``demand for traveling to Southeast Asia is still weak,'' said Japan Airlines spokesman Tatsuo Yoshimura in Tokyo.

The number of people flying to China rose 89 percent this year from 2003 and the number of visitors to Pacific island destinations such as Fiji and Australia rose 4.7 percent in the same period. Travel to Southeast Asia rose 27 percent this year from 2003 and fell 10 percent compared to 2002, Yoshimura said.

Japan Airlines' shares gained 0.3 percent to 304 yen, while All Nippon shares rose 0.9 percent to 338 yen. The announcements were made after the market closed in Tokyo.

Domestic Travel

Japan's domestic travel fell in summer as more people preferred to go abroad for the price of the airfare in the country. Japan Airlines' domestic passenger traffic fell 6.7 percent to 4.21 million in summer, the company said. All Nippon's domestic traffic fell 1.8 percent to 4.17 million passengers during the same period, the airline said.

Japan Airlines filled 74 percent of available seats with paying passengers on international routes during the holiday period, while the proportion of seats filled by All Nippon totaled 77 percent.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon both filled 66 percent of available seats on their domestic services during the period, the two companies said.

Skymark Airlines Co., a low-fare carrier that flies from Tokyo to cities in southern Japan, said it carried 6.5 percent more passengers between July 16 and Aug. 15. The growth failed to keep pace with the 27 percent gain in seat capacity, which resulted in a decline in load factor, or the proportion of seats filled, Skymark said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Masumi Suga in Tokyo at msuga@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 16, 2004 06:12 EDT