The industry’s total surplus of approximately US$4.7 billion in 2023 will be just a fraction of the US$26.4 billion in 2019, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced in Geneva on Tuesday.
The recovery in aviation is progressing differently in different parts of the world: airlines in North America are already gloomy this year, while IATA in Latin America and Asia still expects losses in 2023.
IATA expects a global industry loss of $6.9 billion for the near-ending 2022, almost three billion less than forecast in June. Compared to the first two Corona years, this is a significant improvement. In 2020, the industry reported a loss of approximately $138 billion, a year later the deficit was $42 billion.
After international travel restrictions nearly paralyzed global air traffic at the start of the pandemic, things have picked up somewhat since then. IATA predicts that passenger traffic for airlines from North America will reach 97 percent of 2019 pre-crisis levels next year. In Europe, it will probably be just under 89 percent.
Accordingly, the association already expects a profit of $9.9 billion for 2022 for North American airlines and forecasts an increase of $11.4 billion for 2023.
On the other hand, airlines from Europe are still likely to lose $3.1 billion this year – and they’ll be black only, with an estimated $621 million next year. It is estimated that airlines from the Middle East will only land in 2023.
The association predicts a loss of $10 billion for the Asia-Pacific region for 2022. It is likely that the companies there will lose a total of $6.6 billion next year. IATA explains its assessment with the still restrictive corona policy in China. IATA also expects losses for airlines in Latin America and Africa in 2023.
Despite the positive trend, IATA boss Willie Walsh pointed to challenges for aviation. With expected revenue of $779 billion next year, the projected profit margin will be just 0.6 percent. “There is much to be done to put the global industry on a solid financial footing,” he said. Many airlines struggle with high costs, bureaucracy and inadequate infrastructure.
(SDA)