African airlines can expect further losses

The outlook for Africa’s carriers for the second half of 2009 and 2010 remains unchanged with an expected loss of $0.5 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata). This is in spite of many economies on the continent continuing to grow during the global recession. “African airlines were not able to benefit and lost market share. Further losses in the region are expected next year,” said Iata’s director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani. With the industry facing a loss of $11 billion for 2009 both passenger traffic and cargo volumes are expected to remain low. “Cargo is expected to decline by 14% for 2009 compared to declines of 17% in our June forecast,” said Bisignani. “By July cargo demand was -11.3% and passenger demand was -2.9%. While both are improvements over the lows of -23.2% for cargo in January and -11.1% for passengers in March, both markets remain weak.” Bisignani advised airlines to cut costs in the coming months and to increase efficiency while conserving cash as far as possible. “The global economic storm may be abating, but airlines have not yet found safe harbour. The crisis continues.”