Majdi Sabri, IATA’s regional vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, who is currently in Amman, made the remarks in an interview with the official Petra news agency.
He attributed the upward revision of earlier estimates of airline profits mainly to a tangible growth in third quarter earnings of the globe’s airways, particularly in the Far East, the United States and Europe.
“This increase means that the impact of the global economic crisis on air traffic firms is disappearing,” Sabri said.
He reported a 3 percent increase in air traffic this year compared with its volume before the downturn that hit the world at the end of 2008.
Sabri also attributed the improvement in aviation firm profits partly to the fact that oil prices had risen on average throughout the year to $79 per barrel, whereas earlier estimates expected them to go up to $82 per barrel.
However, he expected net profits of the world’s airlines to go down to $9.1 billion in 2011, mainly due to predictions that the average oil price will go up to $84 in the coming year, noting that the energy component represents 27 percent of the airlines’ operational costs.
He also cited the austerity measures being adopted by European countries to come to grips with the sovereign debt crisis as one of the factors that could negatively affect the demand on air traffic services.
The IATA official expected Arab airlines to post net profits of about $700 million in 2010, compared with about $400 million of losses in last year.
He reported growth rates of 18.6 percent and 30 percent respectively in passenger and cargo traffic in the Middle East and North Africa in 2010, compared with global rates of 8.5 percent and 24 percent respectively.
