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Message from the east
03 November 2008
The mood at Airfinance Journal's annual conference in Dubai was surprisingly upbeat. Will Roberts reports.
Read more:
Arab Air Carriers Organization
Iata
Jazeera Airways
Etihad
James Rigney
Arik Air
As the wintry weather starts to bite and the credit freeze tightens its grip over much of Europe and the US, Airfinance Journal's annual conference in Dubai provided welcome relief from a harsh climate. With the credit freeze thawing under the hot Dubai sun and liquidity flowing through the oil pipes, the region is holding up in the face of airline bankruptcies and huge losses elsewhere. The mood in the conference was refreshingly upbeat.
But opening the conference, Abul Wahab Teffaha of the Arab Air Carriers Organization, presented the brutal reality of the crisis engulfing the global industry.
"Iata [International Air Transport Association] estimates the industry's losses will exceed $5.2 billion in 2008, but next year's losses will be far worse," he said. "There will be a bloodbath in the market."
He spoke of the unprecedented situation whereby interest rates have gone down while Libor has gone up, and...
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