Our snapshot in the Feb-March issue includes an opening editorial from IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani entitled "On what 2009 has in store for the industry."
In it, Bisignani looks at how the industry has fallen on hard times since the celebrations of January of last year, as the world's airlines had rejoiced in their their first profitable year (2007) since 2000, only to have those hopes dashed on the rocks of $147 a barrel oil by July and the whirlwind of recession. By the end of '08, the world's airlines were collectively back in the hole again to the tune of $5 billion.
But believe it or not, Bisgnani sees an improved outlook for 2009, an industry maybe only $2.5 billion in the hole for this year, with U.S. Airlines (virtual no shows on Boeing's order books in recent years) eking out a small collective profit.
Will they be back for more planes? Finally?
Elsewhere, Airline exes are reading in this issue about the role of the increasingly important cargo side of the business, which is also hammered hard by the recession, forecast to be down a collective 5% in 2009.
But while there's plenty of hand-wringing, and strategies for economic survival articles, there's also more in the hope department. That... is recent successful flight tests, and continued breakthroughs in the world's chemistry labs that could produce a certifiable bio-fuel for jets in perhaps five years.
I recently did a story on Boeing's liquids lab in Seattle, which is spending a lot of time evaluating a variety of bio-fuel blends based on different sources from algae to Jatropha plants to stuff you and I have never heard of, that won't compete with the food supply and either grow or can be grown in abundance.