Improving economies and robust travel demand will return global airlines to record profit in 2018, with fares also set to rise, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.
Overall profits are expected to rise 11 percent to $38.4 billion in 2018, and the outlook is encouraging, IATA said on Dec. 5 as it raised its 2017 forecast to $34.5 billion, up from an earlier $31.4 billion estimate, but still lower than 2016.
Of the $38.4 billion, $27.9 billion will come from North American and European airlines.
“We are eight years into this air travel cycle, but we see no reason at present to expect that cyclical pattern to repeat itself,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said, with reference to a trend that would usually indicate a major downturn was due.
