IATA: Premium Traffic Continues to Plummet

(MoneyWatch)  IATA is looking something like the harbinger of doom these days. Every time I receive a report from them, it's all bad news. This time it's the October premium traffic report. Global premium traffic fell 6.9 percent from the previous year. Fortunately for the airlines, the oil benefit is still going to more than offset this, but it's still bad news. And yes, premium revenues are now negative as well as just traffic.

Europe is getting hit the hardest with a 14 percent drop in traffic, but the US didn't see any great news either. Within North America, premium traffic is down 12.2 percent. Longer hauls did better, but they aren't good by any stretch. North Atlantic traffic is down 4.6 percent, North America to Central America is down 4.3 percent, but that's nothing compared to the North and Mid Pacific's 11.6 percent drop. The only gainer was South America to North America which was up by 2.6 percent. That's a pretty small market compared to the oceanic flights.

The message here is clear. Things are still bad and potentially getting worse.