Shift towards record profits for airlines in 2014. According to the latest forecasts from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airlines are expected to post a record net profit in 2014 of some $19.9 billion out of an overall turnover of 751 billion (+4.7%). This is almost twice as much profits made in 2014 than last year ($10.6 billion). 2015 is expected to be even better with an expected net profit of $25 billion. This spectacular success is mainly down to falling prices in oil products (around -10% over the past year). Airfreight and passengers are expected to benefit from this favourable situation, with airlines passing on part of the falling oil prices to airline tickets. IATA believes that prices will be reduced by around 5.1% in 2015 for passengers and by 5.8% for freight - this will result in an increase in the number of airline passengers from an average of 5.4% to 7% in 2015 and from 2.3% to 4.3% for cargo. Global air traffic rose above the 3 billion passenger benchmark last year and could subsequently rise to 3.5 billion next year. The benefits from this growth will, however, remain unequally distributed. Leaving aside air traffic to and from African countries, which have been significantly affected by the Ebola epidemic, it will be in Europe where airline profitability is and will remain weakest. Despite this significant improvement and the fact that gross profit margins for European handlers have improved, profit margins are not expected to be above 1.9% this year and 2.4% in 2015, as opposed to 7.6% and 8.4% for their North American and Asian (6.4% in 2014) competitors respectively and their Latin American (3.5% in 2014) and Middle Eastern (2.6% in 2014) rivals. IATA has somewhat qualified these figures, however, and believes that profitability in the air transport sector remains very modest and fragile overall. Even the slightest changes to oil prices or a relatively minor negative event in the geopolitical sphere could take the sector into the red again, explains IATA. (IL)