Airlines to Return to $2.5 Billion Profit, Group Says

The airline industry will post a $2.5 billion profit in 2010, reversing two years of losses, the International Air Transport Association said today, scrapping an estimate for a $2.8 billion deficit as the economy rebounds.

The profit would be the industry’s first since 2007 and only the third in a decade after previous results were afflicted by recession, terrorist attacks, epidemics and wars. Europe is the only region still forecast to lose money in 2010.