Booking curves have shortened in some markets yet load factors held steady with yields above initial expectations, the IATA congress has been told.
Speaking at the IATA 2026 congress in Rio de Janeiro Marie Owens Thomsen described how the industry passed on costs while observing consumer willingness to pay for travel. Capacity returned rapidly after earlier groundings and resilience appeared in both supply and demand sides.
Hedging policies differed by region with European carriers often more covered than those in the Americas or oil-producing nations. Fuel levies saw partial absorption but average fares rose without matching the full extent of cost increases.
A CEO panel moderated by Richard Quest reviewed scenarios and backup plans developed since prior crises including capacity management adjustments. State-owned carriers in oil-producing countries operated without hedging in some cases.
Airlines in some regions have increased fares to offset higher fuel expenses with customers continuing to book flights.
Willie Walsh shared: “Customers are showing up. They are buying and we’re seeing the planes fill up with higher yields. We are aggressively passing pricing through. The industry is incredibly resilient but also the customers have been incredibly resilient as well.”
Luis Galego shared: All the airlines this year, we are going to have a challenging time. You know that fuel for us can be around 25pc of our cost. Now with this price above 30pc, when the average margin of the industry before is 4pc. This means that it’s going to be a year where we need to be more efficient, where we need to reduce cost and we need to review our schedules if this situation continues. But I think that’s a challenge that we have been used to because in aviation we know that we can have situations like this and I am sure we are going to prove again how resilient this business is.
