Airline Across Regions Record Better Profits For Q3

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (Bernama) -- Airlines across the regions have posted significantly better profits in the third quarter of this year reflecting the rebound in passenger revenues from the second quarter and better asset utilisation, said International Transport Air Association (IATA). "The better performance was widespread across the regions. There was a marked improvement in the third quarter with profits after earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) level slightly above last year. The outlook, however, continues to look more challenging," said IATA in a statement on Thursday. IATA said the performance was consistent with IATA’s September upgrade of its 2011 industry profits forecast to US$6.9 billion. Airlines have also continued to expand their passenger capacity at a fairly steady pace close to six per cent, it said. Meanwhile, air freight capacity increased at a slower pace, largely because the freighter fleet has been stable, it said. IATA also said that passenger load factors rebounded to earlier highs in September, producing a high average for the third quarter and contributing to the improved EBIT performance in this quarter. However, it said that air freight load factors fell sharply and freight utilisation has been undermined by falling demand and new belly capacity from the passenger aircraft fleet. The pace of passenger yield improvements slowed down but was still moved upwards during September while high load factors supported tight supply-demand conditions despite the economic gloom in Europe. IATA also said that the airlines of the United States were in a relatively strong position to improve yields with very little capacity additions and the highest load factors. Meanwhile, share prices of airliners rallied at the end of October after a new package has been agreed to resolve the Eurozone crisis but fell back as the Greek government put the resolution to a national referendum. "Even with a small bounce in October, airline share prices are still almost 30 per cent down on the year, representing a large downward revision in financial market expectations for airline profits," IATA added. -- BERNAMA Malaysia