IATA release Airline Business Confidence for Jan-2010

There was a significant improvement in all the indicators of airline business confidence, measured by IATA's quarterly survey, this January. A divergence was evident between more positive Asian airlines and more

pessimism among European airlines but, for the first time since January 2008, a majority said profitability had improved in the previous quarter (2009Q4). 76% expect profitability to improve over the next 12 months. This

measures the direction of change not levels so these results are showing that airlines expect a significant narrowing of losses in 2010, but not necessarily a return to profit. IATA's own forecast predicts that airline net losses will halve from US$11 billion in 2009 to $5.6 billion in 2010.