The airline industry will post a US$2.5 billion profit this year, reversing two years of losses, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said yesterday, scrapping an estimate for a US$2.8 billion deficit as the economy rebounds.
The profit would be the industry’s first since 2007 and only the third in a decade after previous results were afflicted by recession, terrorist attacks, epidemics and wars.
Europe is the only region that is still expected to lose money this year.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Prospects for carriers have improved in the past few months as economic growth in Asia and the US boosts demand for travel and capacity cuts imposed last year bolster ticket prices.
IATA had been predicting a loss as recently as March 11.
“The global economy is recovering from the depths of the financial crisis much more quickly than could have been anticipated,” IATA chief executive officer Giovanni Bisignani said yesterday in a statement to the organization’s annual meeting in Berlin. “Airlines are benefiting from a strong traffic rebound that is pushing the industry into the black.”
Collective revenue is forecast to total US$545 billion this year, up 13 percent from US$483 billion last year, when the industry lost about US$10 billion.
IATA said it would take two years instead of three for sales to recover to peak levels, given anticipated growth this year of 7 percent in Asia and 3.3 percent in the US.
Bisignani also said that yields, a measure that equates to average fares, will grow by 4.5 percent for both passenger and cargo businesses after falling 12 percent last year.
IATA, which represents 230 airlines carrying 93 percent of international traffic, estimates that jet fuel will represent 26 percent of operating costs this year, up from 23 percent last year. Brent crude oil will average US$79 a barrel, it estimates.
Despite the general recovery, European airlines will lose about US$2.8 billion this year, IATA said, US$600 million more than the March estimate.
This was after the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 14 closed airspace for six days and grounded 100,000 flights.
The event cost the industry US$1.8 billion, with US$1.26 billion of those losses in Europe.
Asia-Pacific carriers are expected to earn US$2.2 billion this year, up from the March forecast of US$900 million. The region lost US$2.7 billion last year.
In North America, airlines will probably post a profit of US$1.9 billion, IATA said, versus a prior prediction for a US$1.8 billion loss.
IATA’s projections are based on information from members, which don’t include discount airlines such as Southwest Airlines Inc, Ryanair Holdings PLC and EasyJet PLC.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)