Indian aviation to grow 0.7% in 2009: IATA

Kuala Lumpur: India’s air transport sector will see a capacity increase of 0.7% in 2009 though the global aviation sector will incur a loss of nearly $5 billion, IATA said.
India, whose market for international air services tripled in size between 2000 and 2008, was expected to see capacity increase by 0.7% in 2009, while demand dropped between 2 and 3%, said International Air Transport Association (IATA) director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani on Tuesday.
Citing rapid deterioration in global economic conditions as the reason for the drop, Bisignani said, “The state of the airline industry today is grim. Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago.”
“Our loss forecast for 2009 is now $4.7 billion. Combined with an industry debt of $170 billion, pressure on the industry balance sheet is extreme,” he said adding industry revenues were expected to fall by 12% or $62 billion to $467 billion this year.
Asian regions would also be seeing a decline in air transport, he said adding the region was expected to see a 6.8% fall in demand.
25/03/09 Bernama/Livemint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2009