Passenger figures improve

IATA now expects its member airlines to post a global profit of US$2.5bn in 2010, a major improvement compared with the Geneva-based organisation’s previous forecast released in March of a US$2.8bn loss.  Outgoing Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said:  “We thought that it would take at least three years to recover the US$81bn (14.3%) drop in revenues in 2009.  But the US$62bn top line improvement this year puts us about 75% on the way to pre-crisis levels,” he said.  “The US$2.5bn profit comes with some important health warnings.  First, this represents a net margin of just 0.5%, which is a long way from sustainable profitability.  Second, a major part of the global industry is still posting big losses.  A stagnating economy, strikes, natural disasters, and a currency crisis have left European carriers as the only region really struggling with an anticipated US$2.8bn loss.  He highlighted Asia-Pacific carriers continuing to benefit from strong regional growth and that North American carriers are expected to return a profit of US$1.9bn. www.iata.org

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