Airbus forecasts happy landing in 2011

European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus SAS, is predicting a turnaround in the aviation sector as early as next year and a return to strong growth in 2011, The Australian reported.

Airbus’ Chief Commercial Officer, John Leahy, made the prediction in Hamburg as he outlined an analysis by the planemaker of world airline traffic. The analysis is more optimistic than forecasts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), perhaps because it includes trends for low-cost carriers, not accounted for in IATA’s outlook.

Leahy said Airbus’ best-case scenario was that world air traffic would decline by 2% this year and return to growth next year. Its worst-case scenario, involving a deeper downturn, would put traffic growth at minus 4% this year, with flat growth next year and a recovery in 2011.
“So this year is going to be between minus 2% and minus 4% down and next year is going to between 0% and 4%,” Leahy was quoted saying. “And then we’re pretty sure we'll be in strong growth by 2011,” he added.

Source: TravelDailyAsia