IN JUNE IATA published its biannual update of the airline industryeco- nomic performance. The economics team usually does this to coincide with the trade group's annual general meeting — but this year the AGM has been postponed to December in deference to the lack of airline connectivity in the coronavirus crisis (although it isstill currently planned to be a physical rather than virtual meeting). The forecasts do not make for happy reading: IATA bluntly points outthat 2020 will be the worst year in the history of the airline industry. With most of the world's fleet of over 20% in North America, Eu-This issue includes Page grounded for a large part of the second and third quarters, the group is forecastingtotal passengertrafficdemand to be down by 55% year-on- year(with a 20 percentage point drop in load factorsto 62.7%), and passen- gerrevenuestofall by6o%to$241bn. Cargo demand conわnues, but with- outthe aircraft to fly it (50% of 什eight is carried in the belly-holds of pas- sengeraircraft)and IATAisforecasting freight demand will be down by 17% year on year while, with the squeeze on capacity, freight yields could grow by 30% and total freight revenues could rise by nearly 10%.
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