Roberto Leiro

ISTANBUL – The global airline industry is expected to generate US$9.8bn in net profits in 2023, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said today during its 79th Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, Türkiye. The latest outlook doubles the forecast net profits in the guidance published in December, which estimated yields to be around US$4.7bn. Operating profits are expected to increase from US$10.1bn in the previous guidance to US$22.4bn. The changes reflect the state of the air travel industry, which is recovering at a faster pace than IATA predicted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The association foresees that 4.35bn people will travel by air this year, almost reaching pre-pandemic levels of 4.54bn. While IATA estimates that cargo volumes will reach 58.7 million tonnes, the forecast for cargo revenues is less optimistic, with a sharp decline from US$210bn in 2021 and US$207bn in 2022 to US$142.3bn this year. However, these are still well above the US$100bn…