Global airline profitability up for this year – but so are airline expenses

At its annual general meeting in Dubai, the global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), announced that its profitability forecast for the worldwide airline sector this year was now higher than it had been in its previous two forecasts. These previous profitability forecasts for 2024 had been issued in June and December last year. IATA now expected total airline net profits to amount to $30.5-billion this year, giving a net profit margin of 3.1%. This would be an increase over the current estimate of net profits of $27.4-billion for last year (with a net profit margin of 3%). For comparison, IATA’s December forecast was $25.7-billion, with a net profit margin of 2.7%.