George S. May Business Blog

2009 equals “worst year” for airlines

Giovanni Bisignani, head of the International Air Transport Association, recently pointed out that 2009 saw the biggest fall off in air passenger traffic.

“In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen,” said the group’s boss Giovanni Bisignani.

In respect to the numbers from last year, passenger traffic dropped by 3.5% and freight traffic fell 10.1%. It should be noted, however, that the figures for December actually showed a rise in traffic of 1.6% on a year ago.

Regardless of the late climb, Bisignani still warned that 2010 will be a very tough year.

“The industry starts 2010 with some enormous challenges,” said the IATA boss. “The worst is behind us, but it’s not time to celebrate. Adjusting to 2.5 to 3.5 years of lost growth means that airlines face another spartan year, focused on matching capacity carefully to demand and controlling costs.”

IATA has estimated that airlines collectively lost $11bn (£6.8bn) last year, and stand to lose a further $5.6bn this year.

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