Scheduled airlines performed slightly better last year than in 2001, but this year's financial results could be far worse, says the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Despite higher security and insurance costs and lingering passenger anxiety, traffic rose slightly to 2.94 billion revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) in 2002.
Combined with post-11 September capacity cuts, this saw the average passenger load factor rise from 69% to 71%. Although the industry as a whole remained in the red, losses narrowed to $7.6 billion - 2.3% of total operating revenues, compared with 3.8% in 2001.
ICAO says the effects of the crisis remained reasonably local last year, with airlines in the Americas showing significant losses and falling yields, while Asian, African, European and Middle Eastern carriers reported small operating profits. North American carriers were hit hard, reporting combined losses of 7.6% of revenues, which drove the industry figures as a whole into the red, despite the rest of the world reporting an aggregate profit of 0.6% of revenues.
But ICAO says 2003 has already seen panic over SARS, renewed terrorist attacks and threats across the Middle East, and the Iraq war, all of which have had "an unprecedented negative effect on the air transport industry". The International Air Transport Association recently revealed that total traffic among its member airlines in April had been 18.5% lower than in the same month in 2002.
Source: Flight International
