Ivan Misetic, AEA chairman and CEO of Croatia Airlines said his members will post a collective operating loss of $4.3 billion in 2009 - 50 percent higher than in 2001 following the U.S. World Trade Center bombing.

“The dimensions of this downturn are unprecedented," he said. “In the past 35 years we have not seen such devastation of value. And we will not return to ‘normal’ again; the consumers are changing their expectations, and this will continue.”

Commenting on the increase in expenses outside the airlines' control he noted, “We have been ripped off for years and the airports and air navigation service providers, still acting as uncontrolled monopolists in our competitive market, continue to push up their prices. During recent weeks we have seen major airports, national air traffic control providers and even the U.S. health agency which inspects arriving flights proposing fee increases to compensate for lower traffic volumes."

Misetic added, “We do not believe that the <EU> Commission fully realizes the importance of the mobility that the AEA network airlines bring to the EU economy, its cohesion and its administration. No other aviation model can replicate the connectivity that the network airlines deliver, linking all parts of the Community, internally and externally with the rest of the world."

The AEA chairman said a healthy European industry was a prerequisite for global economic recovery.