It now appears, according to the International Air Transport Association, that the global airline industry is starting to show signs of a turnaround. They go on to say that the industry should finally swing back around out of the red and back into profits in 2010 after several difficult years.

The International Air Transport Association went on to say that profits are expected to reach $2.5 billion. This is a very big improvement over the $2.8 billion total loss that was predicted three months ago. This shows that the airline industry is improving at a rate that no one could have foreseen.

The chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, Giovanni Bisignani, said that the global economy is recovering from the depths of the financial crisis much more quickly than they could have anticipated. The industry saw revenues drop by $80 billion or 15 percent in 2009 amid the crisis. The International Air Transport Association initially believed three years or more would be needed to recover.

However, he went on to say that he now expects a strong rebound of air traffic. Passenger traffic is forecast to grow by 7 percent to a total of 2.4 billion passengers in 2010. The forecast for cargo growth was revised sharply upward from 12 percent in March to 18.5 percent.

Of course, the International Air Transport Association did point out that Europe continues to be the weak spot. The airlines here will continue to lose about $2.8 billion. This is worse than the $2.2 billion that was previously predicted. Things like airline strikes and the volcanic ash cloud that shutdown European Air Space for almost a week have added to ther problems.