Europe's regional airlines are concerned the traffic recovery may not be strong enough to carry many financially weak carriers through the coming winter. At the recent European Regions Airline Assn. (ERA) annual meeting here, carriers expressed confidence that the worst is behind them in terms of traffic. ERA Director General Mike Ambrose even made a plearnfor financial assistance by European governments, but at the same time admitted that is unlikely to actually happen.rnRegional airlines returned to growth in June with a 6.5% increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs). That was preceded by drops of 4.3% and 8.1% in January and February, with a slow recovery to a 2.7% decline in May. Overall, ERA members carried 7.2% fewer passengers in the first six months of the year and flew 2.6% less RPMs. The load factor dropped from 63.8 to 61.7%. The figures, however, don't reflect another important factor that has affected airline profitability-the sharp double-digit drop in unit revenues.
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