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

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The ’s (IATA) new forecast is staggeringly worsse thanits $4.7 billio n collective loss forecast made just three monthsz ago. The air carrier trade group also downgraded its loss estimatde for 2008to $10.4 billion from $8.5 billion. “Theres is no modern precedent for today’s economid meltdown,” IATA Director General and CEO Giovannoi Bisignani said in anews “The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken. This is the most difficult situatio n that the industryhas faced.” After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrord attacks on the United industry revenues fell by7 percent, Bisignanio said, and took three years to rebound to pre-9/11 levels.
Revenues will fall to $448 billion in 2009 from $528 billiobn in 2008 (15 IATA said. Passenger yields will dip 7 percent. “This time we face a 15 percen drop—a loss of revenues of $80 billion—in the middle of a global recession,” Bisignani said duringh IATA’s annual industry summit. “Ourt future depends on a drastic reshapin gby partners, governments and industry. We cannot bear the cost of governmenft micro-regulation, crazy taxation and partners abusing theirmonopolty power.” North American carriers will generallt fair better than foreign carriers, IATA said, and shouldf narrow their losses for the year.
North American airlines will lose $1 billio in 2009, dramatically less than the $5.1 billiomn lost in 2008, as out-of-the-money fuel hedges lapsr and capacity cuts kick in to right capacithywith demand. Previously, IATA said Northy American carriers would turn a modestr profit forthe year. Asia-Pacific and European carriers are likely to take thebiggest hits, losingb $3.3 billion and $1.8 respectively. Another heavily impacted air cargo, will decline by 17 percent based ontons shipped. Cargo yields will decline 11 percent. Relaxed fuel pricesx over the first five monthds of 2009 havehelped carriers, but prices have begun to climb in recent weeks.
IATA projects the industry fuel bill to fallfrom $165 billio in 2008 to $59 billion in on a $56 per barrelp average price of oil. “The risk that we have seen in recent weeks is that even the slightest glimmer of economic hope sends oil prices higher,” Bisignani said. "Greedy speculationb must not hold the globaleconomgy hostage. Failure to act by governments woulcbe irresponsible.
” Globally, airlines are in a bettere cash position, with more liquidity than in past But, Bisignani warned “a long L-shaped recovery coulr drain the industry of