Al-Qaeda is causing chaos across the travel industry, as more and more destinations are deemed out of bounds to travellers. In the wake of last week's terrorist attacks on Casablanca and Riyadh, the Foreign Office yesterday warned of a 'clear terrorist threat' in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. This follows suspension of British flights to Kenya because of fears of a terrorist attack.

A spokeswoman for Trailfinders, one of Britain's largest travel firms, told The Observer: 'Things have been very quiet this week.' Last week airline Cathay Pacific asked staff to take unpaid leave as passenger numbers dived, Quantas issued its second profits warning in just six weeks, the Dutch carrier KLM said April traffic had fallen by 7 per cent and British Airways reported a 2 per cent drop. Even the low-cost carriers are unable to escape the travel chaos: EasyJet reported a first-half loss after slashing fares to keep reluctant travellers flying.