KUALA LUMPUR – The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) sees 2009 as being another tough year for the airline industry, with continuing uncertainties about the depth and duration of the recession despite major economic stimulus packages being implemented by governments around the world.
AAPA said its forecast follows a challenging year of volatility in the industry in 2008, with mid-year concerns over the burden of record high oil prices rapidly giving way to declining passenger and freight traffic as the global economic slowdown began to bite hard during the final quarter of the year.


“Asian airlines are responding to recessionary pressures with progressive adjustments to both capacity and route networks, but with revenues falling faster than costs, many carriers are suffering losses, exacerbated by losses on fuel hedging,†said Andrew Herdman, director general of AAPA.
“Despite these enormous commercial challenges, AAPA carriers remain focused on surviving the current downturn whilst maintaining the very highest standards of safety, striving to achieve environmental goals and supporting calls for further industry liberalisation.â€
AAPA is currently collaborating with the international Flight Safety Foundation on specific safety initiatives, including measures to reduce runway overruns and incursions.


On the environment, AAPA fully supports the efforts of ICAO in working towards global solutions for aviation to complement wider efforts to address climate change.
However, AAPA is firmly against “the unilateral imposition of punitive green taxes that in reality do nothing for the environmentâ€.
