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8 Oct, 2001

Airlines Predict Huge Drop in Traffic Post-9/11

The International Air Transport Association is forecasting that capacity on international scheduled services will drop by an average of 10-20% during the next three months as a result of the turbulence affecting the airline industry in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US.

The association of global airlines says that the longer term impact is impossible to predict accurately today because it will depend on demand-side issues such as the state of the US economy, the political/military situation, as well as supply side issues like the costs of fuel, insurance and labour.

In a briefing to chief executives of the association’s 277 member airlines, IATA director-general Pierre Jeanniot said that in the last half of September, US carriers saw their revenue passenger kilometres drop by about 35% on international services and 35% on domestic services.

Based on a limited sample of other carriers, traffic in the rest of the world declined by about 20-25% in the first week following the attack but had already recovered to around minus 5% by the following week, Mr Jeanniot said.

He said the impact on the airlines, their customers and employees has been immediate and extremely harsh — sharply reduced demand for services; unprecedented delays at airport security checkpoi

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