Amman - A senior official of the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) on Sunday predicted that 2009 would be a difficult year for the global air traffic industry due to the deepening world economic crisis.

The revenues of the world's airlines are expected to go down by 5- 6 per cent, while the passengers traffic and cargo are expected to drop by 3 and 5 per cent respectively, Majdi Sabri, IATA's Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, told Jordan's official Petra news agency.

"The airways most affected will be those which handle transit traffic among the world's major recession areas in North America, Europe and the Far East and those which operate among tourist regions," he said.

However, Sabri said, the distinguished airlines in terms of services extended to passengers would "retain their share of the air traffic market, given allegiance of passengers to those firms."

Air traffic in the oil-rich Gulf region was expected to grow by 1- 2 per cent in 2009, compared with 7 per cent in 2008 and 18 per cent in 2007, he said.

Sabri put the losses incurred by the world's airlines in 2008 at about 5 billion dollars and the losses of the air traffic firms in the Gulf region at 100 million dollars, compared with 200 million dollars posted as profits in 2007.

"The biggest challenge facing airlines in the Gulf region will be handling the excess capacity versus diminishing demand, taking into account that a large number of aircraft is scheduled to join the regional fleets," he said.

Anticipating a strong increase in demand, airlines in the Gulf region filed orders for more than 1,000 aircraft over the past three years with a total cost of 178 billion dollars, Sabri said. These aircraft are scheduled to join the regional fleets in the coming 10 years.

"This means that air traffic firms in the region stand to suffer inevitable huge losses in the coming years," he added. dpa