“This deterioration was before the recent rise in fuel prices and was due mostly to the fall in revenues, as a sharp fall in yields added to the impact of weak travel and freight volumes,” IATA said on Tuesday.
The negative results are consistent with IATA’s full-year loss forecast of about $9 billion said the association.
But they contrasted sharply to the $405 million profit made by the airlines during the same period last year.
European carriers posted the biggest losses during the first quarter of 2009, totaling $2.08 billion.
Asian-Pacific airlines showed losses of $822 million while North American carriers posted losses of $574 million.
Middle Eastern airlines posted a profit of $291 million, but this was a fraction of the $1.69 billion profit they earned during the same quarter last year.
Only Latin American carriers improved their earnings, with $139 million in profits for the quarter, up from $120 million year-on-year.
A slump in air passenger traffic accelerated in February and March, reaching double-digits, before stabilizing in April, IATA statistics indicated.
