News In Brief

'83 passengers - and safety - set record for US airlines

The nation's airlines carried a record 318 million passengers in 1983, an 8 percent increase over the previous year, and the industry posted its best safety record since the start of the jet age, the Air Transport Association said Monday.

Scheduled airlines also broke records for air cargo, US mail carried, and ''revenue passenger miles'' - the number of paying passengers per mile - the Washington-based trade group said in its annual report.

The airlines showed an operating profit of $310 million on revenue of $39 billion, after three years of losses that neared $1.5 billion, the ATA said in its report.