Carriers back in profit in second quarter

Geneva: The International Air Transport Association says 47 major carriers it monitors to assess the industry's financial health reported a net profit of $3.9 billion (Dh14.3 billion) in the second quarter.

The results contrast with the $881 million net loss posted by carriers a year earlier.

IATA says airlines in North America and the Asia-Pacific region performed best.

Asset sale

The Geneva-based association says European carriers' results were boosted by a $1.3 billion asset sale in the second quarter, without which they would have posted further losses.

IATA said on Monday that airlines benefited from stable fuel prices and slowly improving demand over the past months.

Last week, IATA said that international scheduled traffic statistics for July show continued strengthening of demand for both passenger and cargo traffic.

Compared to July 2009, international passenger demand was up 9.2 per cent while international scheduled freight traffic showed a 22.7 per cent improvement.

These year-on-year comparisons for July were less than the June growth data showing 11.6 per cent and 26.6 per cent increases for passenger and cargo traffic, respectively.