Dubai: Middle East carriers will post a profit of $100 million (Dh360 million) this year, recovering some of the $600 million loss during a tough 2009, International Air Transport Association (IATA) said yesterday.

The profit will be the first since 2005, according to the global industry monitor's director-general and chief executive Giovanni Bisignani.

"Global traffic is back to pre-recession levels with load factors nearing 80 per cent and the bottom line is improving," he said in Berlin yesterday during IATA's 66th Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit.

GDP growth for the Middle East of 4.3 per cent is outstripping the global average and Gulf carriers are increasingly gaining market share through their hubs for Europe to Asia-Pacific traffic even as capacity is being added at a more cautious rate, IATA said in a report sent to Gulf News.

Regional heavyweights such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways have posted record profits, taking the limelight away from the other regional carriers that haven't been on an expansion spree.

Emirates last month posted a Dh3.5 billion profit for its 2009 financial year, a staggering 248 per cent increase over the previous year.

Capturing an extensive share of transit traffic, it flew 27.5 million passengers.

Meanwhile, the global airline industry will post profits of $2.5 billion for 2010, a rebound from earlier estimates of a $2.8 billion loss, IATA said.

Recovering some losses of the past year, the profit will be the industry's first since 2007.

Passenger traffic is forecast to grow by 7.1 per cent this year and cargo traffic will expand by 18.5 per cent.

This is significantly better than the previous forecast growth of 5.6 per cent and 12.0 per cent respectively.

Europe remains the only region still expected to face losses this year, of $2.8 billion after suffering a severe dent in recovery as it dealt with over 100,000 cancelled flights due to airspace closure caused by volcanic ash.

Enduring the burden of high fuel prices, airlines lost $9.9 billion in 2009 after passenger traffic fell 2.1 per cent and cargo dropped 9.8 per cent.

Average yields dropped 14 per cent, while industry revenues fell 15 per cent or $85 billion, to $479 billion, taking the industry back by two to three years.