IATA Forecasts Airlines Will Return to Profitability in 2023

North American airlines will likely turn a profit this year, followed by Europe and the Middle East in 2023, according to the latest projections from IATA.

IATA director general Willie Walsh (pictured right) and chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen report on airline profit performance at the association's media briefings this week in Geneva. (Photo: IATA)

By Cathy Buyck • Contributor - Europe

December 6, 2022

While acknowledging the existence of some headwinds, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is maintaining an optimistic outlook for the global airline industry and expects that airlines jointly will post a net profit of $4.7 billion next year. That would mark the industry’s first positive result since the pandemic hit in 2020 and an improvement on the trade body’s previous outlook, released at its AGM in Doha in June, when it said that industrywide profitability in 2023 “appears within reach.”

Passenger numbers will return to pre-Covid levels in 2024, when, according to IATA, some 5.2 billion will board an airplane. During a media briefing on Tuesday, the airline industry group said that for 2022 it expects airline net losses to reach $6.9 billion, narrowed from the $9.7 billion loss IATA forecast in June. IATA chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen described the industry’s financial performance as “nothing but phenomenal.”

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