THE global airline industry has passed its nadir, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said yesterday after figures showed a sharp improvement in air traffic in June.
International air traffic fell 11.8 per cent in June compared with the previous year, against a 21 per cent slump in May. The result was attributed to the easing of the Sars outbreak. IATA stood by its forecast that Sars and war in Iraq will cost the industry about $6.5 billion (£4 billion). It predicts that the industry will return to profitability next year.
“Clearly we have turned a corner,” Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the airline trade group, said.
IATA expects passenger traffic for the year to be down 2 per cent on last year but it should grow 6 per cent next year. The outbreak of Sars will cost the industry $4 billion and the war in Iraq, which was not as damaging to the industry as first thought, could result in losses of some $2.5 billion, IATA estimates.
Airlines, hit by the September 11 terror attacks and a global economic slowdown, lost $25 billion in 2001 and 2002.