ISTANBUL (dpa-AFX) – After severe losses in the Corona crisis, airlines all over the world can look forward to more than twice as much profit in 2023 as previously thought. Also because of higher ticket prices, the industry is likely to achieve a surplus of 9.8 billion US dollars (about 9.15 billion euros) this year, said the International Air Transport Association IATA at its general assembly on Monday in Istanbul. In December he had expected $ 4.7 billion. Airlines from Europe in particular are apparently coming out of the crisis much better than expected.
Nevertheless, the industry is likely to earn significantly less worldwide than in 2019, the year before the pandemic. According to the information, airlines had flown in a profit of 26.4 billion dollars worldwide. In the first pandemic year 2020, however, they posted losses of 137.7 billion dollars, in the following year still a minus of 41.9 billion dollars. With losses of probably 3.6 billion dollars, 2022 was much lighter and thus significantly better than estimated in December.
Airlines from Europe in particular came out of the crisis financially better than initially thought. According to the information, they made a profit of 4.1 billion dollars last year, while the association had predicted a loss of 3.1 billion dollars for them in December. For 2023, IATA is now forecasting a profit of 5.1 billion dollars, more than eight times as much as last predicted and thus not far from the pre-corona level.
The association expects passenger numbers to increase to 4.35 billion worldwide this year. That would be just four percent less than 2019. “All things considered, we think this will be a good year for aviation,” said IATA boss Willie Walsh.
Passenger traffic in Europe is not recovering from the crisis quite as quickly as in North America. According to IATA, the number of flights there this year will be five percent larger than in the year before the pandemic. The number of passengers is likely to be two percent higher. In Europe, on the other hand, according to the association, the flight offer in 2023 will still be two percent below the pre-crisis level – and the number of passengers even six percent below.
For the airlines from North America, the association only slightly adjusted its profit forecasts: last year, their profit was around 800 million dollars lower than last estimated at 9.1 billion dollars. For 2023, IATA is now expecting profits of around 11.5 billion dollars there, around 100 million more than before.
While airlines from the Middle East are still heading towards $2 billion after profits of $1.4 billion this year, the industry in other regions of the world remains deep in the red.
In particular, the strict corona restrictions in China caused airlines in the Asia-Pacific region to lose $13.5 billion in 2022. In the current year, according to IATA, the minus should be halved to 6.9 billion dollars. The association predicts a similar trend – albeit with smaller deficits – for airlines in Latin America and Africa./stw/ngu/jha/
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