Airline traffic : further declines in September

IATA reports more dire news on worldwide airline traffic in September:

“The deterioration in traffic is alarmingly fast-paced and widespread. We have not seen such a decline in passenger traffic since SARS in 2003,” said Giovanni Bisignani (pictured), IATA’s director general and chief executive officer. “Even the good news that the oil price has fallen to half its July peak is not enough to offset the impact of the drop in demand. At this rate, losses may be even deeper than our forecast US$5.2 billion for this year,” said Bisignani.

Cargo

This is the worst decline since the technology bubble burst in 2001.

Declines in airfreight have slowed year-to-date growth to 0.1 per cent, with all regions except the Middle East and Africa, reporting negative results.

Just plain ugly.