Airline Q4 losses smaller than Q3: IATA

MUMBAI: While airline losses continued in Q4, the good news was that losses were smaller than Q3 due to cost cutting measures and robust cargo revenues, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA) airlines financial monitor for January 2021 released on Monday.
The bad news is that with new variants of Covid bringing on new travel restrictions, airlines are expected to continue to burn cash throughout 2021. The recovery in travel demand is delayed to the second half of the year, said IATA.
Global airline share prices declined in January amid new travel restrictions. “European carriers underperformed other regions as the pace of vaccine rollout was slower than expected, increasing the risk to summer travel,’’ the report said. Asia-Pacific airline shares too fell by a similar extent as its European counterpart, but Asia-Pacific carriers have large domestic markets which could lead to faster improvement.