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Global airline association forecasts industry’s return to profit in 2023
December 7th 2022
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the airline industry to become profitable next year as a result of growing air travel demand. Read More » IATA forecasts the world’s airlines will book a collective net profit of US$4.7 billion in calendar 2023 on revenues of US$779 billion. IATA also has upgraded its outlook for calendar 2022. It calculates airlines will post lower net losses of US$6.9 billion for the year compared with its June forecast of a US$9.7 billion net loss. “Resilience has been the hallmark for airlines in the COVID-19 crisis,” IATA director general, Willie Walsh, said. “As we look to 2023, the financial recovery will take shape with a first industry profit since 2019. It will be a great achievement considering the scale of the financial and economic damage caused by governments’ pandemic restrictions.” Airlines lost US$42 billion in 2021 and US$137.7 billion in 2020, IATA figures show.
Asia-Pacific carriers are predicted to suffer losses of US$10 billion in 2022 and US$6.6 billion in 2023. “The Asia-Pacific, critically, is being held back by China’s zero-COVID policies on travel. The region’s losses are largely skewed by the performance of China’s airlines. They are encountering the full impact of this policy in their domestic and international markets,” IATA said. “Taking a conservative view of a progressive easing of restrictions in China in the second half of 2023, we nevertheless expect strong pent-up demand to fuel a quick rebound in the wake of any such [relaxed] moves.”
