Wellington  - Air New Zealand announced Thursday a 79-per- cent slump in after-tax profits for the six months ending December 31, after what chairman John Palmer said was one of the toughest periods airlines had ever faced.

The airline, which is 76 per cent owned by the government, reported net profits of 24 million New Zealand dollars (12.24 million US dollars) for the half-year.

Palmer cited the unprecedented price of fuel, which rose 36 per cent on the same period in 2007, adding 211 million New Zealand dollars to costs of running the airline.

Slipping international traffic is pushing foreign carriers operating out of India to downsize capacity and drop loss-making routes.

Berlin - A German union seeking pay rises for Berlin airport staff vowed to disrupt operations at two capital-city airports, with workers to walk off the job for three and a half hours on Tuesday.

Officials said Monday that in the period to be affected, after 6 am Tuesday, 50 takeoffs and 30 landings were timetabled at Tegel Airport and 20 takeoffs and nine landings were scheduled at Schoenefeld Airport.

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.

Today a warning was extended to private airlines, which are hiking their airfares by forming cartels, by Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel who announced that strict action would be taken against those indulging in such activities.

Mr. Patel said, "As far as raising airfares is concerned, they are outside the domain of the government as airfares are fixed by market forces."