More than 50 global airlines lost $2.021 billion during the second quarter, bringing industry losses for the first half to over $6 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 billion.
Sixteen Asian-Pacific carriers posted losses of $1.29 billion during the second quarter, compared to losses of $958m a year ago. Twelve European airlines recorded $1.101 billion of losses during the period, slipping into the red from a profit of $439m a year ago.
Twenty North American airlines, however, trimmed their losses from $419m a year ago to $134m for the second quarter this year. Latin American carriers also improved profits from $5m in the second quarter last year to $485m, while Middle Eastern carriers saw profits rise from $7m to $20m.
The association also warned today that jet fuel prices were rising and had reached over $80 a barrel - a level last seen in 2007, adding pressure to earnings.
Pointing to improving passenger and freight volumes, IATA said however that they were still below levels recorded last year.
'Travel only began to stabilise at the end of the first quarter. There was a material improvement in July but the future path is likely to be volatile and weaker than normal recoveries,' it said.
IATA had said in August that international air passenger traffic showed an improvement in July but the industry remains in 'intensive care'. Passenger traffic fell 2.9% in July compared to the same month last year, a 'relative improvement' from the 7.2% fall recorded for June.
SkyEurope files for bankruptcy
Low-cost airline SkyEurope has filed for bankruptcy and suspended all flights after struggling to restructure debt and cope with sinking revenues.
The small Slovakia-based carrier, which was launched in 2001 and served mainly continental Europe, had obtained a three-month creditor protection in Slovakia in June and was trying to restructure and pay its outstanding debt.
But SkyEurope said a trustee appointed by a Slovak court had assessed that the carrier did not have the funds to carry on in light of reduced passenger bookings and flight revenue.
The economic slowdown has hit the airline hard and its financial woes compounded its problems, causing it to lose even more passengers because of concerns that it was insolvent. Passenger traffic in July declined by 37% year-on-year. The Vienna stock exchange said it had suspended trading in SkyEurope shares with immediate effect until further notice.
Prague airport had said it would bar SkyEurope landings from Tuesday because it had failed to pay outstanding bills. Vienna airport already stopped servicing SkyEurope on August 15 for not paying outstanding invoices by midnight on the previous day.
