‘Less Poor Than We Were Before’

The International Air Transport Association has upped its industry-wide profit outlook for this year and next.

The main beneficiaries will be North America’s carriers, which will be reaping more more than half of the global total this year and next, according to the new numbers.

IATA CEO Tony Tyler announced that the worldwide outlook for 2015 is now for a $33 billion net profit and $36.3 billion for 2016.

The combined Canadian and US industry is expected to share more than $19 billion of the total take-home each year, reports Press Today’s Mike Dunbar, who’s attending IATA’s media day event in Geneva.

And in commenting on the industry’s record profit outlook, Tyler certainly had the quote of the day, when he said:

“So we are finally – after years of destroying capital – delivering the minimum level of profitability that an investor would expect. One of our CEOs at last week’s board of governors’ meeting described the state of the airlines as ‘less poor than we were before’.”