World airlines lose $2 bn in Q2: IATA

I / Geneva September 1, 2009, 16:09 IST

More than 50 global airlines lost $2.021 billion during the second quarter, bringing industry losses for the first half to over $6.0 billion, airline industry association IATA said today.     

But while European and Asian-Pacific carriers were worse off than a year ago, North American airlines managed to trim their losses while Latin American and Middle Eastern carriers reported a rise in profits, IATA said.     

The International Air Transport Association had earlier forecast that losses for the full year would reach about $9.0 billion. 

Sixteen Asian-Pacific carriers posted losses of $1.29 billion during the second quarter, compared to losses of $958 million a year ago.     

Twelve European airlines recorded $1.101 billion of losses during the period, slipping into the red from a profit of $439 million a year ago.

Twenty North American airlines however trimmed their losses from 419 million a year ago to 134 million for the second quarter this year.

Latin American carriers also improved profits from $5 million in the second quarter last year to 485 million this year, while Middle Eastern carriers saw profits rise from $7 million to $20 million.