Brazil's Lula popular despite violence, air crisis

BRASILIA, April 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has shrugged off a prolonged aviation crisis and rising crime with his highest approval rating in more than two years, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

Lula's approval rating tallied 63.7 percent in April, his best rating since February 2005, an opinion survey by polling firm Sensus showed.

Last August, two months before he was re-elected by a landslide, the same Sensus poll put his approval rating at 59.3 percent.

Economic growth, job creation, and income distribution buoyed Lula's approval, Sensus Director Ricardo Guedes told a news conference in Brasilia.

Ninety-one percent of those polled said violence had increased in recent years. But most Brazilians blame crime not on Lula but primarily on poverty, drug trafficking and a weak judiciary, according to the poll, which was published by the National Transport Confederation.

Waves of high-profile criminal attacks in big cities have shocked Brazilians over the past year.

An aviation crisis that repeatedly disrupted air travel over the past six months apparently also had little impact on government support.

Only one in four people polled blamed the federal government for the situation, which left thousands of passengers stranded at airports late last month.

Lula has bounced back from several challenges, including a series of corruption scandals involving his ruling Workers' Party in 2005 and 2006.

The survey polled 2,000 people on April 2 to 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.