Airlines may lose $47.7bn in 2021 — IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Wednesday revised its airline economic performance forecast for the year 2021 putting net post-tax losses forecast at $47.7 billion in 2021 as against a $38 billion projected in December.

“Financial performance will be worse and more varied this year than we expected in our December forecast, because of difficulties in controlling the virus variants and slower vaccination in some regions,” IATA said.

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The report noted that large airlines have raised sufficient cash to cover this already but many smaller airlines haven’t and will need government aid or to raise more cash from the banks or capital markets.

The report further said Middle East airlines would benefit from widespread vaccination on key home markets but suffer from a slow opening of the long-haul international markets that connect through the Gulf hubs.

But the African region losses might be minimal as the report indicated largely due to relaxed international travel restrictions but vaccination “is very slow, which is likely to restrict the rebound of international markets.”