The Hindu Business Line : `Scheduled airlines reduce losses'

FOR the third successive year, the world's scheduled airlines posted an operating loss of $2.8 billion in 2003. This, however, marked an improvement over an operating loss of $4.9 billion in 2002. It is hoped that in 2004 the industry may record its first operating profit since 2000.

According to the Annual Review of Civil Aviation for 2003 conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and published in ICAO Journal, the operating revenues of the world's scheduled airlines in 2003 have been estimated at $312.9 billion, a 2 per cent rise over the 2002 figure of $306 billion.

The $6.9-billion increase in operating revenues has been attributed to gains through traffic growth and fluctuations in currency exchange rates that were partly offset by lower real yields.

The review states that traffic growth in 2003 over the previous year positively impacted operating revenues by $3.4 billion even as the strengthening of major currencies vis-à-vis the dollar contributed $14.7 billion. However, the gains were offset by a drop in real yields of $11.3 billion.

In 2003, the operating revenues per tonne-kilometre performed went up marginally to an estimated 72.9 cents from 72.1 cents in 2002.

In 2003, the operating expenses of the world's airlines have been pegged at $315.7 billion, a 1.5 per cent increase over expenses of $310.9 billion in 2002. The increase in expenses of $4.8 billion has been attributed to exchange rate losses, increase in fuel costs and a 1.6-per cent increase in capacity over 2002 that was partly offset by a decline in real unit costs. The operating expenses per tonne-kilometre performed declined marginally from 44.63 cents in 2002 to 44.59 cents in 2003.

In 2003, the total scheduled traffic carried by airlines of ICAO member-states has been estimated at 404.3 billion tonne-kilometres performed, an increase of 1.8 per cent over 2002.