IATA: remarks of Giovanni Bisignani at the March financial outlook announcement, Geneva

Good morning to those in Geneva and Europe, and good evening to those joining from Asia. Today we are downgrading our profit forecast to $8.6 billion from the $9.1 billion that we predicted in December. That is a 46% fall from the $16 billion that airlines made last year. These may sound like big numbers, but that is for an industry which expects revenues of $594 billion this year. That means that the 2.9% margin of 2010 will shrink to 1.4% this year.