Airlines expect to carry 4.35 billion passengers worldwide this year, close to the record of 4.54 billion reached in 2019, before the pandemic, the main International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced.
Meeting in general assembly in Istanbul, Turkey, IATA indicates that this recovery in air traffic, thanks mainly to the reopening of China, will translate into a return of the airlines to profits.
The airlines expect to achieve a net profit of 9,800 million dollars (9,100 million euros) this year, double what was initially forecast by IATA, which also halved its estimates of losses for 2022, placing them at 3,600 million dollars (3,300 million euros).
The global turnover of airlines is expected to reach 803,000 million euros, reaching 838,000 million in 2019, according to IATA, which revised upwards its previous projections in December (779,000 million).
Although the sector’s operating margins remain very low this year, 1.2%, according to IATA, these benefits -the first since the start of the pandemic- will mean an improvement compared to 42,000 million dollars (39,000 million euros ) lost in 2021 and the bottom of 2020 (137.7 billion dollars).
However, IATA warned that not all geographic areas will return to profit this year.
Traders in North America, Europe, and the Middle East are expected to be largely in the green at $11.5, $5.1, and $2 billion, respectively.
But companies in the Asia-Pacific region (-6.9 billion dollars), Latin America (-1.4 billion) and Africa (-500 million) will continue to be in deficit this year, the association warned.
“The financial performance of the airlines is better than expected. The higher profitability is supported by several positive developments: China lifted the covid-19 restrictions earlier than expected,” said the director general of IATA.
Willie Walsh added that “revenues per cargo are still higher than before the pandemic, although this is not the case with volumes” and that “costs are beginning to slow down”, giving an example: “Fuel prices, still high, are have contracted in the first semester.”
Source: TSF
