IATA Projects Loss for Airline Industry in 2009
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced its forecast for 2009. It expects an industry loss of 2.5 billion dollars.
All regions, except the U.S., are expected to report larger losses in 2009 than in 2008.
IATA said that cargo traffic is expected to decline by five percent, following a drop of 1.5 percent in 2008 (prior to 2008 the last time that cargo declined was in 2001 when a six percent drop was recorded).
IATA also updated its forecast for 2008 to a loss of five billion dollars.
This is slightly improved from the 5.2 billion dollar loss projected in the association’s September forecast primarily as a result of the rapid decline in fuel prices.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO said that 2009 would be another tough year for everyone.
He mentioned the losses for European carriers, which are expected to increase ten-fold to one billion dollars.
According to IATA, Europe’s main economies are already in recession, while hedging has locked in high fuel prices for many of the region’s carriers in U.S. dollar terms and the weakened euro worsens the impact.