IATA: Global airlines to lose $9B in 2009 - Nashville Business Journal:

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The ’s (IATA) new forecas is staggeringly worse thanits $4.7 billion collectivse loss forecast made just thred months ago. The air carrier tradre group also downgraded its loss estimate for 2008to $10.4e billion from $8.5 billion. “There is no moderb precedent for today’s economic meltdown,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovannij Bisignani said in anews release. “Thr ground has shifted. Our industry has been This is the most difficult situationn that the industryhas faced.” After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, industry revenuesz fell by 7 percent, Bisignani and took three years to reboundto pre-9/11 levels.
Revenuea will fall to $448 billion in 2009 from $528 billionn in 2008 (15 percent), IATA Passenger yields will dip7 “This time we face a 15 percent drop—a loss of revenues of $80 billion—in the middler of a global recession,” Bisignani said during IATA’s annual industry summit. “Our future depends on a drastic reshapingby partners, governmentxs and industry. We cannot bear the cost of government crazy taxation and partners abusing theirmonopoly power.” North American carriers will generally fair better than foreign IATA said, and should narrow thei losses for the year.
Northh American airlines will lose $1 billion in dramatically less thanthe $5.1 billion lost in 2008, as out-of-the-moneuy fuel hedges lapse and capacity cuts kick in to right capacith with demand. Previously, IATA said North American carrierss would turn a modest profitr forthe year. Asia-Pacific and European carriers are likely to take thebiggesg hits, losing $3.3 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively. Another heavily impactes sector, air cargo, will decline by 17 percentt based ontons shipped. Cargi yields will decline 11 percent.
Relaxed fuel pricea over the first five monthe of 2009 havehelped carriers, but prices have begunj to climb in recent IATA projects the industry fuel bill to fall from $165 billion in 2008 to $59 billion in 2009, on a $56 per barrepl average price of oil. “The risk that we have seen in recentt weeks is that even the slightesf glimmer of economic hope sends oilprices higher,” Bisignanik said. "Greedy speculation must not hold the globaeconomy hostage. Failure to act by governments woul dbe irresponsible.
” Globally, airlines are in a betteer cash position, with more liquidity than in past But, Bisignani warned “a long L-shapexd recovery could drain the industry of cash.” Bisignanui noted industry consolidation, such as the mergefr between Atlanta-based (NYSE: DAL) and , that have made some players But he railed against what he called “archai limitations on ownership” that prevent the merginv of carriers from different countries.