Airline losses set to swell

AER Lingus and Ryanair are bucking the trend as European airlines’ losses are expected to widen to as much as $2.5 billion in 2003, it emerged yesterday.

European airlines will post losses of between$1 billion and $2.5 billion this year as fewer people fly, said David Henderson, a spokesman for the Brussels-based Association of European Airlines, which represents 30 airlines. Losses amounted to $900 million in 2002 and $3 billion in 2001, Mr Henderson said.

“At this stage of the year, we have a range of outcomes from bad to approaching the worst ever,” said Ulrich Schulte- Strathaus, the association’s secretary general, in an e-mailed statement.