GENEVA, April 19: The global airline industry is fragmented and suffers from over-capacity, the head of the industry association IATA said on Saturday, urging speedy approval of a proposed takeover of US carrier Northwest Airlines by rival Delta Air Lines.

Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said the industry’s profitability remained minimal, with US companies suffering most because of the downturn in the world’s biggest economy.

“Without exaggerating, the United States is in an urgent state,” he said in an interview with the Geneva daily Le Temps.

A Delta-Northwest deal would open the way to others such as a merger between Continental Airlines and UAL Corp’s United Airlines who are already in talks, he said.

Delta is offering more than $3 billion for North-western in a deal that would create the world’s biggest airline by traffic.

Despite cost savings such as the introduction of more economic routes and the elimination of jobs, the sector had a profit of only $5.6 billion on sales of $480 billion last year, and profit was forecast to fall this year to $4.5 billion, far below the margin of 7 percent needed to cover investments, he said.—Reuters