Airlines lost as much as $100M due to supertyphoons

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that two Category 5 typhoons that slammed Japan, China and the Philippines in September likely resulted in industry-wide passenger revenue losses of $60 million to $100 million.

Such findings were included in the release this week of IATA’s assessment on the impact of the storms Jebi, which landed in Japan’s southern cost on Sept. 4, and Mangkhut (Ompong), which hit the Philippines’s Luzon island on Sept. 15 before moving on to Guandong province and Hong Kong.

The figures cited were a small fraction of global passenger revenues, which IATA estimated would reach $590 billion this year. However, such disruptions underscored the importance of some of those gateways, which serve as important global hubs.

Apart from passenger revenue losses, airlines incurred other expenses such as passenger reaccommodation and the cost of diverting flights.