The Hindu Business Line : Operating loss of global airlines narrows in '03

THE combined operating loss of the world's scheduled airlines has come down in 2003 compared with the previous year. In 2003, the combined operating loss stood at 0.9 per cent of operating revenues, compared with an operating loss of 1.6 per cent of operating revenues in 2002.

According to preliminary estimates compiled by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and published in the ICAO Journal, the total operating revenues of global scheduled airlines in 2003 have been estimated at $3,12,900 million, a marginal increase of 2.3 per cent over the operating revenues in 2002. The operating expenses in 2003 stood at $3,15,700, an increase of 1.5 per cent compared with 2002.

In 2003, the operating revenues per tonne kilometre performed rose to 72.9 cents from 72.1 cents the previous year. The operating expenses per tonne kilometre performed also went up to 73.6 cents from 73.3 cents.

While the global aviation industry fared badly in 2001 and 2002, the recovery in 2003 was expected to be stronger. However, this did not happen on account of security concerns, the events in West Asia and the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. The net financial results in 2003, after inclusion of non-operating items such as interest charges, subsidies and deduction of income tax, have been provisionally estimated to be at a loss of 2.1 per cent of operating revenues, an improvement over a loss of 3.7 per cent of operating revenues in 2002. In 2003, the total international and global domestic traffic - which includes passengers, freight and mail traffic — went up by 2 per cent over 2002 when measured in terms of per tonne kilometre performed.

Total global passenger traffic rose by one per cent in 2003 even as freight grew moderately on both international and total services. Thanks to an increase in the seat capacity, the passenger load factor in 2003 on international services decreased to 72 per cent in 2003 from 73 per cent in 2002.

In 2003, there was some variation in regional results. Airlines of the Asia-Pacific and African regions achieved a nominal positive aggregate operating result while airlines in Europe, West Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean had operating losses. The losses suffered by North American airlines strongly impacted the global aggregate result. Airlines of the North American region suffered an estimated loss of 2.6 per cent of their operating revenues in 2003.