Today IATA released some December and full-year traffic results, and the numbers weren’t exactly the prettiest. The organization reported that full-year passenger demand for 2009 was down 3.5% compared to 2008. IATA chief Giovanni said, “In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen. We have permanently lost 2.5 years of growth in passenger markets and 3.5 years of growth in the freight business.” Looking ahead to 2010, he remarked that the “airlines face another spartan year focused on matching capacity carefully to demand and controlling costs” and will have to deal with “some enormous challenges.”
Revenues aren’t exactly the best either, with yields down 5-10% compared to 2008, though there was some improvement towards the end of the year. “Revenue improvements will be at a much slower pace,” said Bisignani.
But data for the end of 2009 looks a bit better – IATA reports that demand in December increased 4.5% year-over-year. So hopefully we can all be optimistic about 2010.
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