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International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani forecast here on Monday that 2005 will be another year of losses for the aviation industry, which would amount to 5.5 billion US dollars.

Delivering the opening keynote speech at the 54th annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Bisignani said that the global air transportation is undergoing the most difficult time ever.

"High oil price is challenging all carriers. In 2005, if average oil price is 43 US dollars per barrel (Brent), the fuel bill of the aviation industry will reach 76 billion dollars," saidBisignani.

At that price, the industry losses in 2005 would amount to 5.5 billion US dollars.

IATA has 270 member airlines, which constitute 94 percent of scheduled international traffic covering some 150 countries worldwide. It is also associated with 79,000 IATA travel agencies.IATA airlines sold 300 million air tickets annually totaling 225 billion US dollars in industry settlement.

Bisignani said that global airline yields dropped 10 percent inthe last five years, as airlines tried to meet passengers' expectations for cheap travel.

He said that more people are flying, as it has never been so much cheap to travel. Last year, 1.8 billion people traveled by air. However, airlines have never lost so much money with accumulated losses between 2001 and 2004 running up to 36 billion US dollars.

In term of profitability, Asia-Pacific carriers are among the strongest, said Bisignani.

He said that airlines, travel agencies, global distribution system, airports, tourist operators, hotels and souvenir shops areall part of a tightly connected value chain. If one part of the value chain is broken, everybody suffers.

He advised airport partners to preserve fair competition for airlines and governments to rethink tax imposed on airlines. All tourist stakeholders must learn to cooperate and communicate better, as they share the same customers and the future, said Bisignani.