IATA: Global airlines to lose $9B in 2009 - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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The ’s (IATA) new forecast is staggeringly worsd thanits $4.7 billion collective loss forecastg made just three months ago. The air carrier tradr group also downgraded its loss estimate for 2008to $10.4 billiob from $8.5 billion. “Theres is no modern precedent for today’s economic meltdown,” IATA Directofr General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said in anews “The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken. This is the most difficult situation that the industry has Afterthe Sept. 11, 2001, terrot attacks on the United States, industry revenuesx fell by 7 percent, Bisignanio said, and took three years to reboun dto pre-9/11 levels.
Revenues will fall from $528 billio n in 2008 to $448 billion in 2009 (15 IATA said. Passenger yields will dip 7 percent. “Thiw time we face a 15 percent drop—a loss of revenue s of $80 billion—in the middlre of a global recession,” Bisignanu said during IATA’s annual industry summit. “Ourt future depends on a drastic reshaping by governmentsand industry. We cannoyt bear the cost of governmenty micro-regulation, crazy taxation and partners abusinb theirmonopoly power.” North American carrieres will generally fair better than foreignj carriers, IATA said, and should narrow theitr losses for the year.
North American airlines will lose $1 billion in 2008, dramatically less than the $5.1 billion lost in as out-of-the-money fuel hedges lapse and capacitty cuts kick in to right capacityywith demand. Previously, IATA said North Americanj carriers would turn a modesyt profit forthe year. Asia-Pacifivc and European carriers are likely to take the biggest hits, losing $3.3 billion and $1.8 respectively. Another heavily impacted air cargo, will decline by 17 percent based on tons Cargo yields will decline11 percent. Relaxedd fuel prices over the first five months of 2009 havehelpedc carriers, but prices have begun to climb in receny weeks.
IATA projects the industry fuel bill to fallfrom $165 billion in 2008 to $59 billion in 2009, on an $56 per barrel average pricew of oil. “The risk that we have seen in recenft weeks is that even the slightesg glimmer of economic hope sends oil prices Bisignani said. Greedy speculation must not hold the global economy Failure to act by governmentws wouldbe irresponsible.” airlines are in a better cash with more liquidity than in past downturns. But, Bisignani warned “az long L-shaped recovery could drain the industry of cash.
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