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Just 68 pc airlines made profits in 2000

Ambar Singh Roy

KOLKATA, Oct. 22

ONLY 68 per cent of airlines across the globe managed to post operating profits in 2000. The estimated aggregate operating profit of global airlines stood at $11 billion or a mere 3.3 per cent of the global scheduled airlines' operating revenues of $328. 7 billion.

According to the annual review of civil aviation for the year 2000, conducted by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the global air transport industry grew last year carrying more passengers, mail and cargo than ever before. The industry po sted an operating profit for the eighth consecutive year even as the upswing in tonne-kilometres performed has been maintained since 1991.

The annual civil aviation report for the year 2000 has cited rising costs, especially fuel costs, and lower revenue per passenger-kilometre as the main reasons for the downturn in operating profits during the year under review. Tonne-kilometres performan ce rose by eight per cent and the average passenger load factor on all scheduled services went up to 71 per cent. The growth in international services outpaced global domestic traffic.

While 2001 will be a difficult year for the aviation industry worldwide, the industry is expected to bounce back in 2003 in terms of the number of passenger-kilometres performed. The passenger traffic of airlines based in the Asia-Pacific region are like ly to record the highest annual average growth in passenger traffic.

The utilisation of air space for international civil aviation went up last year thanks to the implementation of communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management systems based on satellite technology.

In 2000, the world's airlines carried 1,647 million passengers and 30 million tonnes of freight. This was higher than the 1,562 million passengers and 28 million tonnes of freight carried by the world's airlines in 1999.

The US alone accounted for 34 per cent of the total volume of scheduled air passengers, freight and mail traffic. Sixteen of the world's top 25 airports in terms of passenger throughput were located in the US, too. The 25 busiest airports together handle d 1,096 million passengers in 2000 with each of them averaging 120,000 passengers per day.

Atlanta Hartsfield was the world's busiest airport with 80.1 million passengers and 885,000 take-offs and landings. However, London Heathrow handled the maximum number of international passenger traffic.

Global air carriers ordered a total of 1,553 jet aircraft in 2000 -- representing a financial commitment of $80 billion -- compared with 987 orders placed in 1999. Last year, a total of 1,009 jet aircraft were delivered in addition to 57 turboprops.

An interesting development has been the growing number of online bookings. Delta Airlines, for example, sold 2.5 million tickets on its Web site, thereby generating $775 in revenue. Low-cost carriers like EasyJet sold most of their seats on the Internet.

A review of safety has revealed that the number of fatal air accidents in scheduled air services globally in 2000 stood at 18, down from 21 in 1999. However, the number of passenger fatalities in 2000 was higher at 755 compared with 499 the previous year .

Consequently, the number of passenger fatalities per 100 million passenger-kilometres went up during the year under review to 0.025 from 0.020 in 1999. However, the number of fatal aircraft accidents per 100 million aircraft kilometres flown decreased in 2000 to 0.07 from 0.09. The number of fatal aircraft accidents per 100,000 landings decreased to 0.09 from 0.10.