The 'worst' list included a few big airlines - Air France, British Airways and KLM (which all made the list in both reports).

Note, however, some AEA members (including Aer Lingus and Virgin Airlines) don't provide data - raising suspicions that they have something to hide.

Also, it seems difficult to believe Icelandair's (and Air Malta's in 2003) 100 per cent flight regularity - the percentage of flights performed as planned. Particularly because both airlines also figured in the 'worst' list for late arrivals or departures. An integrity check is perhaps in order.

In the meantime, could Asia's equivalent to AEA - the Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Asia Pacific Airlines - match this for the region's airlines? And would the airlines dare to tell all?

spendthrift ways

In the past, Hong Kong was a world champion in terms of the amount of money visitors spent in the city on a per-person basis. Those times, it seems, have long gone.

The latest available data shows that even Thailand takes in more dollars from its visitors.

This is partly because visitors stay a shorter time in Hong Kong than in a destination such as Thailand - less than four days for the former compared to around 10 for the latter. The good news, however, is that spending growth in Hong Kong last year was fast.

Among its main competitors, Hong Kong's spending growth was about the same as in Australia and the mainland, but faster than Singapore and Thailand.

regional rivalry

All regional airports reported fast growth last year, but Guangzhou looked likely to beat Hong Kong in the final tally.

Over the first 11 months, Hong Kong had 39.1 per cent growth in passengers compared with 38 per cent at Guangzhou. However, the new airport serving Guangdong's capital saw faster growth later in the year.

staying close to home

Hong Kong residents seem to be increasingly reluctant to take trips to destinations other than the mainland, according to indications from the latest figures.

Although the number of travellers from Hong Kong (excluding the mainland) grew 13 per cent last year, much of it was recovery from declines in the two previous years.

Also, the rate of growth was much slower than for the other major travel markets in the region which ranged between 25 and 30 per cent each for Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.

Final results from the mainland are not yet available, but its growth will have been the region's strongest at about 50 per cent last year and reaching a total of 30 million departures.

However, there is some mystery about how much money is spent by those travellers.

The World Tourism Organisation puts Hong Kong's total quite high at US$11 billion - higher than for both Korea and Taiwan, even though they have a higher traveller count.

The spending figure looks too high if based on travellers to destinations other than the mainland (US$2,200 per trip), but too low if travel to the mainland is included (under US$400). Also looking low is the total spending on international travel by mainland travellers; the organisation says it totalled US$15.2 billion in 2003.

taking a gamble

Macau may have assumed it would be the first choice for gambling tourism by mainlanders, but there are challengers.

Two doing big business with mainland gamblers are Myanmar and the Philippines - but a long way from their capitals.

In Myanmar, the gambling centre is Mongla in northeast Shan state on the border with China's Yunnan province.

In the Philippines, it is Laoag in the north, where former president Ferdinand Marcos was born, and where he built an ill-fated international airport.

Both areas have been transformed by casinos with gamblers from the mainland, although Laoag also has a sizeable portion hailing from Taiwan.

Mongla gets an average 1,000 visitors daily from the mainland while Laoag gets four charter flights daily.

Compiled by Murray Bailey, research director and editor, Travel Business Analyst