Dubai: The Middle East's airlines will see their 2012 profit shrinking to $700 million, from the $800 million forecast for 2011, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Tuesday in an updated industry forecast.
The aviation body meanwhile upgraded its global industry profit expectations to $6.9 billion (up from $4.0 billion projected in June). IATA emphasised that, despite the improvements, profitability at these levels is still exceptionally weak (1.2 per cent net margin) considering the industry's total revenues of $594 billion.
In its first look at 2012, IATA said, it is projecting global industry profits to fall to $4.9 billion on revenues of $632 billion for a net margin of just 0.8 per cent.
