LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - The head of global airlines

body IATA said threatened U.S. trade tariffs were unlikely to

halt a post-COVID surge in travel demand, and that President

Donald Trump's approach could ultimately be positive for the

industry.

"It's additional uncertainty which we never welcome but

we've always been able to manage," IATA's Willie Walsh said in

an interview, as the prospect of more U.S. tariffs looms.

He said the Trump administration's approach to date was a

"net positive" for the airlines sector and was likely to

encourage consolidation.

Describing Trump's approach as a "wake-up call", he urged

European regulators to relax regulation.

"I think it is important that Europe re-evaluates its role

in the world, and I think the Trump administration has caused

that to happen much more quickly than I had expected," he said.

Walsh said transatlantic travel was up in January and

February year-on-year and that travel demand across the industry

was up 9% since before the pandemic in 2019.

"We'll look at March and April as we get the figures there.

But certainly in the figures that we have available to us, it's

not obvious that there's been an impact," he said.

Individual airlines have given a mixed picture.

Virgin Atlantic said on Monday that travel from the

United States to Britain had slowed, echoing comments from its

part owner Delta of the impact of U.S. economic

uncertainty on demand.

Germany airline Lufthansa, however, said on

Tuesday, it had not seen a fall in bookings for transatlantic

travel.