The world’s airline industry is experiencing its deepest crisis in nearly 60 years, and is projecting nearly $5 billion in losses this year as passenger and freight traffic continue to decrease, the International Air Transport Association said today, according to The New York Times.

The group said it has increased its loss forecast to $4.7 billion from the $2.5 billion it projected in December.

“This crisis is resizing and reshaping the industry,” the group’s CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, said during a conference call from the group’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Bisignani predicted that revenues would fall 12 percent or $62 billion in 2009, which would be double the contraction the industry experienced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He attributes his projected decrease on sharp declines in the two areas that drive most of the revenue: first-class and business-class passenger traffic and freight.

In January, high-end business passenger traffic decreased by nearly 17 percent, and cargo dropped more than 23 percent. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be hit the hardest, forecast to lose $1.7 billion in 2009. Conversely, North American airlines are expected to turn a profit of $100 million.