Passenger markets still shrinking - IATA
Airlines around the world suffered a total $1bn loss in the first quarter of 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.
The loss, reported in the Association's Financial Monitor, is in line with its forecast loss of $4.7bn for the industry this year.
But IATA said the Monitor revealed a "varied performance" among airlines in the three months.
It said that US passengers airlines were reporting improved performances which reflected their capacity cuts.
But most airlines outside the US were posting larger Q1 losses.
IATA said that passenger markets in March "continued to sink " with figures down 9%. But it said figures had been distorted by the timing of Easter this year.
But the Association said the number of premium tickets sold had dropped by 20% on the previous month.
There was a further 4.4% cut incapacity in March compared with February but this was "far behind" the 11.1% drop in demand.
IATA said the "re-sizing" of the industry was varying hugely indifferent regions.
US carriers have reduced capacity by more than 10% but airlines in the Middle East and Latin America were still growing their networks.
IATA added: "March is normally a good month for load factors, with significant holiday travel. However, compared with this time last year load factors were down a very sharp 5.4%."
The Association also noted that fuel prices after falling to $40 per barrel in December had now risen back to $50 per barrel.
The one good point in the IATA Monitor was that airlines seem to have stopped "parking" aircraft.
Fleets were growing once more and while 30 aircraft were retired in February and March, "virtually no aircraft" were put in storage.
Between September 2008 and January this year, airlines "parked" more than600 aircraft.
www.iata.org [1]